LAUREN Price and Rosie Eccles will go for global glory next month after being named in a seven-strong GB Boxing squad for the AIBA Women’s Boxing World Championships in New Delhi, India.
The duo, who both box out of Pontypool ABC, won Commonwealth Games medals on the Gold Coast in Australia earlier this year – Ystrad Mynach’s Price secured gold and Chepstow’s Eccles silver.
Price, 24, and Eccles, 22, will stake their claims for world titles at 75kg and 69kg respectively when the competition gets under way on November 15.
The Welsh fighters are joined by English pair Sandy Ryan (69kg), who beat Eccles to welterweight gold down under, and Paige Murney (60kg), another silver medallist from the Gold Coast.
And the GB Boxing party (pictured below) is made up of three more English women in the shape of 2016 European champion Natasha Gale (75kg), Ebonie Jones (51kg) and Ellie Scotney (57kg).
The seven boxers compete across the five weight categories which will be used at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, namely flyweight (51kg), featherweight (57kg), lightweight (60kg), welterweight (69kg) and middleweight (75kg).
Price, Ryan, Jones and Gale are part of GB Boxing’s Podium Squad which trains at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield every week from Monday to Thursday.
Scotney, Eccles and Murney are part of the Podium Potential group which trains full-time in Sheffield from Tuesday to Friday and Wednesday to Saturday on alternate weeks.
Ryan and Price are the only boxers with previous experience of competing at the World Championships.
Price is hoping to cap a triumphant year which saw her add bronze at the European Championships in Bulgaria to her gold from the Commonwealths in April.
“This has definitely been the best year of my boxing career so far and it would be lovely to end it on a high by winning a medal at the worlds,” she said.
“I have been on the world-class programme now for over a year and I am really feeling the benefit of being a full-time athlete and training three times a day.
“My preparation has been great and I am definitely feeling confident going into the event.”
GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken added: "This is a relatively inexperienced group as we have had a number of senior female boxers leave the squad this cycle, so it is an opportunity for some of the newer boxers to show that they have what it takes to compete at the highest level.
“The World Championships is always a very tough test and will provide us with a good indication of how we are progressing with the women's programme as we look to build a new team for Tokyo 2020.”
All seven of the boxers are part of the GB Boxing squad and will compete in their home nation vests at the World Championships.
In addition to the seven, three women from Scotland, not part of the GB Boxing set-up, will compete at the championships.
The three are Stephanie Kernachan (flyweight), Vicky Glover (featherweight) and Megan Gordon (light-welterweight).
You can follow the progress of Price and Eccles at gbboxing.org.uk and on Twitter via @gbboxing
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