‘IT ALL STARTS HERE’
The national Youth champs take place in Banbury
THE final stages of the England Boxing Youth championships take place at The Spiceball Leisure Centre in Banbury, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals being held from February 15-17. Boxing starts at 1pm.
Significantly a Youth Olympic champion and Youth World champion, Caroline Dubois will be competing in the event.
“The Youths are very important to me because I haven’t boxed competitively for a while and it will be a good opportunity to get rid of the rustiness,” Dubois said.
“I certainly won’t be taking anything for granted because when you have won major championships, you are up there to be shot at, with people wanting to beat you and put themselves in the limelight.”
“I’ve been getting in lots of rounds and sparring with some of the England boys, which has proven really useful,” she added. “There are just little things that I need to work on.”
Of the Youth Olympics she noted, “It was really special to be part of a team of four boxers who all won medals and also the three who won gold were the only goal medal winners in the Great Britain team on that trip.
“That experience has given me a taste of what it would be like to compete at an Olympics, with the athlete village and everyone together from the same team, but in different sports.
“It’s definitely put Tokyo on my radar. I’ve watched senior bouts and I know I can be on that level, but I’ve got to keep working hard and winning this season and try to progress to the GB set-up. I have to win everything, really, to stand a chance of selection – and that starts with the Youth Nationals.”