‘I WILL ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS’

SHE shares a roll of honour with Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray and Phil Foden and her brother is one of British sport’s hottest prospects. But reflected glory holds no interest for teenage boxer Caroline Dubois.

The kid sister of British heavyweight champion Daniel made a name for herself by winning Olympic, world and European youth titles without tasting defeat.

It earned the young Londoner recognition as the latest BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

And today, after just one fight in the senior ranks, she was expected to move to within one win of booking a place at Tokyo’s Games. That was last night, now put on hold after the IOC Boxing Task Force (BTF) pulled the plug on the Olympic qualifying event in London to give participants the chance to get home before the world totally shuts down.

But while Dubois has been denied the chance to measure her skills against European champion and top seed Mira Potkonen, she says she already knows what others will have to wait to see.

“There will be a time when I step out of my brother’s shadow and achieve something that’s great,” said the 19-year-old.

“I’m Daniel’s sister but I’m creating my own history. Proving those people wrong who said I couldn’t do it.

“Some are probably a bit jealous I’ve been pushed forward. It’s now up to me to go and prove I am good enough.”

In truth it is hard to find those ‘people’ in a sport where the consensus is that she has every bit as much potential as Katie Taylor and Nicola Adams at the same age.

Almost from day one Dubois has harboured an ambition to form half of boxing’s first world champion brother and sister combination. “I did many other sports as a kid; athletics, swimming, gymnastics,” she said. “But there was a different vibe about boxing.

“I’m a really competitive person and the excitement and buzz of the sport is like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was something I craved.

“I love the fact it’s just you and your opponent. Best person wins. In other sports you can make excuses. Not boxing.”

The sadness for her is that her meteoric rise is now on hold, but in truth boxing had little option given the escalating health crisis.