Rosie Eccles: Boxing gold bid in Paris fuelled by Olympic heartbreak

Rosie Eccles (left) beat Ireland's world champion Amy Broadhurst in June

Rosie Eccles has said the heartbreak of missing out on the last Olympics will fuel her medal bid in Paris next year.

The 27-year-old from Cardiff missed out on a place at the Tokyo Olympics following the "curse" of Covid.

Eccles contracted coronavirus three times and saw the qualifying process cut short by the pandemic.

But bronze at the European Games in June sealed a place at next summer's Games and the chance to realise a life-long ambition.

Eccles said: "I was absolutely heartbroken to miss out on Tokyo and it's been a real monkey on my back for a long time.

"I've really had to do it the hard way. Just when I thought I was in the clear I got Covid again, so it felt like I was cursed and history was going to repeat itself.

"But I showed at the Commonwealths that I had that grit to come back and get the medal in tough circumstances, and that shows I have plenty of self-belief."

Eccles showed just what she is capable of by winning light-middleweight gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

She then followed that by coming through a tough draw in Krakow, including a notable win over Ireland's world champion Amy Broadhurst, to effectively seal her place.

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The Great Britain fighter, a former sparring partner of compatriot and Tokyo gold-medallist Lauren Price, will have the added bonus in the French capital of a change to the Olympic weights and will be able to fight in her favoured 66kg category, rather than the 70kg division in which she triumphed in Birmingham.

"It's my natural weight and it's really going to benefit me," she said.

"I'm ready to go out and achieve what I know I can achieve. I've waited my whole life for this bit. I've had plenty of ups and downs, but all that heartache is only going to help."

Eccles admitted she has dreamt of going to the Olympics since her first boxercise class in 2011, a year before the likes of Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor boosted the profile of the women's sport at London 2012.

"I already had a massive ambition to go to the Olympics and watching the likes of Nicola Adams just confirmed it," added Eccles.

"I've always been a huge fan of the Olympics, I remember sitting down when I was younger and watching the likes of Kelly Holmes.

"But boxing made me realise that this is my sport and this is where I want to be, and about a decade later it's finally happened."