Commonwealth Games: Six Wales boxers close in on record medal haul in Birmingham
- Published
Team Wales boxing head coach Colin Jones (L) celebrates with Garan Croft (2nd R) after the light-middleweight's last-16 win over Nigeria's Abdul-Afeez Osoba
2022 Commonwealth Games |
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Hosts: Birmingham Dates: 28 July to 8 August |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV with extra streams on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport mobile app; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra; live text and clips online. |
Wales' boxers are closing in on an historic Commonwealth Games medal haul with six fighters going for gold over the final weekend in Birmingham.
With half a dozen boxers preparing for Saturday's semi-finals, Wales have already matched the medal haul of six when Cardiff hosted the Empire Games in 1958. On that occasion the hosts achieved one gold, two silvers and three bronzes.
Welsh boxers returned home from the 2018 Gold Coast with four medals, led by Lauren Price who made history by becoming Wales' first female boxer to win gold.
'Hard yards deserve medals'
Now head coach Colin Jones believes this current crop can achieve even more, saying: "The story is yet to get bigger I think.
"It is the colour of the medals they can earn now after we have equalled the six medals of Cardiff in 1958.
"We are very proud because they have put the work in. Some of them have been here three or four years, others not so long.
"They have done a lot of travelling over to Europe to places you would not even dream of going to.
"They have done the hard yards and deserve the medals. They are a credit to themselves and some of them are very young.
"There's a lot of passion within the team which Wales should be very proud of. "
Jones is the head of this group and de facto father figure. An amiable, modest man, with the credentials of a career that saw him crowned British, Commonwealth and European welterweight champion after boxing in the 1976 Olympics.
His current crop are an eclectic mix including a plumber, identical twins, an 18-year-old and a boxer determined to upgrade from Commonwealth silver to gold.
Nerve damage left me fearing for boxing career - Eccles
That is Rosie Eccles who has suffered some turbulent times since reaching the final in the Gold Coast.
Light-middleweight Eccles, 26, has overcome nerve damage in her arm that left her fearing for her career and left her in chronic pain throughout 2020.
She suffered the injury weeks before the original Olympic qualifying event in London in March 2020.
Eccles lost her opening bout and her only shot at Tokyo had gone, but now she is back in the Wales colours and will face Northern Ireland's Eireann Nugent.
"Sport is full of ups and downs," she reflected.
"The downs hit you but the highs are so high and it's hard to regulate that.
"This was a long down, it was awkward, it was complicated.
"I've had great people around me and received great advice, just keep going and here we are today.
"I can't tell you how much I'd love to bring home a gold medal. I've told everyone I need to, there's no choice, I've got to bring it back.
"You're going to see some medals coming out of this team, I'm telling you."
A golden glow in Crymych?
There will be two for one family after 20-year-old identical twins Ioan and Garan Croft impressed on the way to the semi-finals.
They compete in different weight categories so they do not fight each other.
They come from the small Pembrokeshire village of Crymych, which has around 800 inhabitants.
Welterweight Ioan will face Scotland's Tyler Jolly.
"It's superb but I'm not here for a bronze, I'm here for a gold medal," said Ioan.
His sentiments were echoed by light-middleweight Garan who takes on Northern Ireland's Aidan Walsh.
"I am confident I can go all the way in this tournament and I believe my brother can do the same," he added.
"So we hope for nothing less than gold medals.
"As a community as well in Crymych and the Cardigan area, to take two medals home to Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion will be amazing. We want them to be gold."
Archive: Meet the identical twin boxers going to the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Another boxer hoping to win for his family is Wrexham flyweight Jake Dodd who faces England's Kiaran MacDonald.
A plumber by trade, Dodd recognised he had a small leak in his Commonwealth Games accommodation although admitted he could not fix it because he had not brought his tools.
The 27-year-old also hopes a gold is in the pipeline, but admits whatever happens in Birmingham he will be straight back to his day job - as he has to fit a new bathroom in 10 days before he goes on holiday to Greece with his family.
"I would always say I would bring a medal home for my boy and everybody at home, and I have done it," added Dodd.
"I can't believe I am a Commonwealth medallist. It means everything, it's going to change my life, my family and friends are just so supportive."
Sporting prowess runs in the family of light-heavyweight Taylor Bevan who will have to tame England's home-town favourite Aaron Bowen.
Bevan, 21, won his opening fight on the same day as his footballing younger brother, Owen, made his debut for Bournemouth in a pre-season friendly against Real Sociedad.
"It was a brilliant sporting weekend for our family," said Taylor.
"We motivate each other to train even though we don't train together. When I see him do well it motivates me to go and do well in boxing. My goal is to win a gold medal."
This leaves the youngest member of the party, as 18-year-old Cardiff bantamweight Owain Harris-Allan prepares to face Ghana's Abraham Mensah.
Harris-Allan has been striking during his time in Birmingham, not least with his bright pink florescent socks that have made him stand out from the crowd.
But Harris-Allan, in the same thread running strongly through this Welsh team, now has his attention on a different colour, adding: "It is amazing man, I am going to be going for that gold."