Going for gold
Vicky is first female boxer selected
Team Scotland stars set for Gold Coast games
Rutherglen’s Vicky Glover insists she has can be a cut above the rest as she became the first ever female Scottish boxer to be selected for the Commonwealth Games.
The 18-year-old ended up cutting lawns and hedges as punishment for attacking two men and damaging a car with a baseball bat on Main Street in January. However, at 54kg the British boxing champion says she’s back on the straight and narrow and hopes her efforts will bring home a gold in April.
Vicky, a former Durie’s BC member, will be out to prove she is no teen tearaway after she was unveiled as one of nine fighters bound for the Gold Coast as part of Team Scotland.
She said: “I made a mistake. I’m still young. We all make mistakes and I’ve learned from it.
“I’ve done a lot since. I’ve been to the British Championships and the World Championships. And now I’m going to the Commonwealth Games. I just want to keep moving forward.
“My payback for the community was cutting grass for people,” she added. “Cutting people’s hedges and gardens. Painting houses. If someone needed help to move house, shifting couches, I’d do that sort of thing.
“Of course, I’d rather not have been there. I didn’t enjoy it, but I got on well with all the guys.”
Vicky played football when she was younger. She mixed it with the unusual combination of kick-boxing and ballet dancing until some trouble at school led her father to take her along to a boxing club for the first time aged 10.
“I never stuck to anything but I took to boxing straight away,” she continued.
“I’d been in a bit of trouble at school and my dad thought it was a good idea.
“He was right. My coach saw potential straight away.
He told me to come back and that I was naturally talented. It was quite intimidating at first but there was a natural buzz.”
Vicky, who recently missed out on a medal at the World Youth Championships in India on a split decision, will now fight at the Commonwealths alongside the six Scots men already picked, including Glasgow 2014 bronze medallist Reece McFadden.
Fraser Walker, interim CEO Boxing Scotland Ltd, said: “We had no female team members in Glasgow 2014 – this demonstrates how much work we have put into developing female boxing in Scotland and is testament to the performances of our female boxers who have impressed so much during the selection period.”