WORLD AND EUROPEAN light-welterweight champion Amy Broadhurst has admitted that her life-long Olympic dream may be over following her European Games quarter-final defeat to Rosie Eccles in Poland earlier today.
With reigning Olympic champion Kellie Harrington locked into Broadhurst’s natural weight of lightweight (60kg) for the past four years, the Dundalk woman last year ruled the world up at light-welter (63kg) — but this is not an Olympic division.
Consequently, Broadhurst competed at these European Games all the way up at welterweight (66kg) in search of an Olympic spot of her own, but her size deficit was telling as she was narrowly shaded in her last-eight clash with British standout Eccles this afternoon.
Broadhurst can still qualify for Paris through one of two slightly easier ‘world’ qualifiers in the first half of next year.
However, with big-time professional boxing figures seriously interested in her explosive talents down at her natural weight, the 26-year-old southpaw has suggested that today’s slender defeat could prove her final contest in the amateur ring.
“Heartbroken isn’t the word,” Broadhurst wrote on Instagram a couple of hours after her quarter-final exit.
“I always thought my destiny was the Olympic Games. I believed I was born for boxing, I was to be an Olympic champion, and that’s not the way it’s gone for me.
I don’t know what’s next. I don’t know if I’ll ever strap an amateur glove around my hand again or if I’ll go pro.
“But I just want to say thank you to everyone who showed me support over the years. Thank you for standing by me thru the highs and lows. Thank you to my family and the Irish coaches for everything.”
Broadhurst finished by congratulating British opponent Rosie Eccles, who in victory over the Dundalk woman booked her own spot at Paris 2024.
“Now was your time,” Broadhurst added, tagging the three-time European medallist.
Speaking separately to the GB Boxing social media team following her victory, Eccles said: “Amy is one of the people who I admire more than anyone in the boxing world. She’s been through some rough patches like me and honestly, it seems cruel that we have to take it away from one of us.”
