Boxing Success – Nicole Clyde – Parkhall Integrated College year 13 pupil.

Nicole started boxing when she was 10 years old back in October of 2012, she is a member of Antrim boxing club which is based in Springfarm. She entered her first championship in October 2014, which was the Ulster Novice Championship and was held in Bainbridge, she weighed in at 46 kilos but was unfortunately there was no suitable opponent and couldn’t get a contest that day therefore she received the Ulster title in a walkover. During the first year of her competing in boxing she entered many different Championships from the Co. Antrim Novices to the Ulster Novices and various Open Competitions but was unable to get a contest due a limited number of girls taking part in the sport not being the same age nor weight as her. Going into her second year of competing (2015/16) she was able to get more and more contests and she was able to compete in the Ulster Open, Belfast Open and then went on to win the Co. Antrim Open. These successes lead her onto qualifying for the All Irelands. Her first All Irelands was a real test where she was drawn against the Irish Champion in the Quarter Final. At this fight she put on a good show but was unfortunate not to receive the decision. This was a great experience which set her up really well for the 2016/17 season, where she took park in the Esker International Female Box Cup, Ulster Open, Belfast Opens, Co. Antrim Opens and then the Irish Junior Championships where she came out as the Winner in all of these. During this season she also represented Ulster on 2 occasions and also Ireland at International Level. Her 2017/18 season was not as successful as the previous season, but she still came away with titles in the Belfast Opens and claimed the titles at the Co. Antrim and Ulster Championships but was unfortunate to be beat by an Irish Champion in the Irish semi-final. This however all lead onto her most successful season to date (2018/19). Where she started of the season winning the Esker International Box Cup, Belfast Opens, Ulster, Co. Antrim and an Irish title all at 52 kilos. During the summer of 2019 she competed in the Irish under 18 Championships when she was only 16 and the youngest in her category. She was therefore not excepted to take the title, however, she won the semi-final in a unanimous decision putting her into the final where she boxed against a girl from Limerick and stopped her in the third round. She was then invited down to the Irish High Performance Training where she later found out that she was going to box in the European Championships for Ireland over in Sofia Bulgaria at 51 kilos. Over in Bulgaria she was drawn to box a girl from the Netherlands in the last 16 and beat her on a unanimous decision to move onto the quarter final and a chance to box for a medal, all she needed to do was beat a European silver medallist from England!! This was a close contest where the first and second round could have gone either way, so she knew she needed a big third round to get the decision which is what she produced. Her coaches thought I had done enough to take the win all left to do now was await the decision which seemed to take forever it was a 3-2 spilt decision that was awarded to England where there was only one point splitting the two of us, which seen the end to a very successful first European championship. I have had the opportunity to box against a range of different countries including; England, Netherlands, Russia, India and many more. Currently at the moment I am training hard and hopefully to get back onto the Irish high-performance squad. In the future I hope to get the opportunity to represent Ireland at as many European and world championships as possible and someday get to go to the Olympic games. I am also targeting the commonwealth games in 2022 where I will get to represent Northern Ireland. I have gained a lot since I started boxing over 7 years ago, with the thing I’ve gained most being confidence, I walked into that boxing club shy and not wanting to talk to anyone, whereas now I have built an unbelievable bod with my coach Eamon Gillen and have made a lot of lifelong friends and I now have the confidence to speak up for myself and to put across my ideas in the club.