I am Six times All Ireland Champion, five times Leinster Champion, five times Nine County Champion and five times Kildare Champion. i was selected to to box for Ireland in the World Championship that took place in Taipei, Taiwan in May of this year and it was the proudest and best experience of my life so far. I box for St.Bridgets BC in Edenderry after recently winning the Offaly Championships. I recently beat the European Gold Medalist in France in May which was brilliant and a very tough girl , I have been selected to represent Ireland once again this time in the Europeans in Hungary in August.
Now boxing on the Irish team i have been very lucky to have boxed in many countries across Europe one of which was the Golden Girl Championships in Sweden the last two years in a row. I received silver against the no 2 boxer in the world…twice!!!
I boxed in Germany in The Germany Queens Cup and I received bronze. I boxed in Italy, England, France , Sweden, Taiwan and Holland . I have boxed in Home Internationals and I won my fight against Sweden which was held in the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin on Valentine’s Day.
At just six years old i joined nearly every other sport possible to do when you are six and was not interested in any of them.
I took to boxing very easily as my mother refused to spend any more money on sports that I would not stay with for less than a week.
She put me into boxing for exercise as it was, at the time only €1 every Tuesday and Thursday. When I joined I was told I had a natural talent and I enjoyed it, so I stuck at it and have loved it ever since.”
I have many goals that I would like to accomplish, but all of my training over the last few years has all been for one big goal I have always dreamed of; that goal was to qualify for the World Championships and represent my country.
Another dream of mine is to follow in the footsteps of the one and only, Katie Taylor. With the Olympics set in her sights for year 2020, “It would be an absolute dream come true to qualify for the Olympics. I definitely have Tokyo 2020 in my sights. I will need more experience and more hard work will have to be done if I want to achieve this goal in five years time.”
The number one highlight of my boxing career to date is hard to choose but every year that I win my All Ireland Championship title is a big highlight to my boxing career, but the biggest highlight so far has been selected to go to the World Championships in Taiwan.
I boxed in The Golden Girl Championships which is one of very few competitions that are held for just female boxers: it is a massive event open to all female boxers in Europe.
The first year that I went over to Sweden, my mother had funded the trip to get me more fights as I had no competitive fights in Ireland at the time so this competition gave me my first experience of fighting at an International level and I found it pretty scary, but pretty amazing at the same time.
I fought the German champion in the semi-final and I won on a 3-0 decision. Unfortunately the final against the Swedish champion who is ranked number 2 in the world went to a 3-0 decision to the Swedish girl. This year when I went back again, I received the world number 2 from Sweden in my weight again, and I lost on a 2-1 split decision, so this time was closer.”
Both times ended with a silver medal for my country and hopefully next time I can bring home the gold.”
I secured a sixth Irish title this year consecutively in the under 18′s .
Boxing and I have an extreme love/hate relationship: as much as I love the winning side, the hard work, dedication and sacrifices that have to be made to get where you want to be are extremely hard. If you are serious about the sport, you have to constantly watch what you eat.
Coming up to competitions, I would have to train at least twice a day everyday and that is tough. Although you may be in a club with a team and have the support of family and coaches, once you step into that ring you are on your own and it is up to you what happens next. I enjoy training as it can be a stress reliever especially to help with the overload of stress from school and I would recommend any girl who has an interest and is willing to commit to boxing to join as the feeling when you win is the most amazing feeling in the world, especially when you Put so much hard work into it and every loss is a learning experience.”
The success in the sport means more and more funding is needed to help me achieve my ultimate goals.
My parents always try their best to fund my boxing as much as they can and what I do not have I just do without. Since Katie won Gold in London, there has been more funding put into women’s boxing and since boxing is the most successive sport in the Olympic Games for Ireland we could definitely do with more funding into the boxing scene.
If there are any sponsors out there who are looking for a female boxer to invest in, I would be very happy for any support given
Thank you so much
Shannon Edge
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