The comeback kid
REMEMBER Chantelle Reid? As a teenager, she won European Junior gold in 2014 and bronze at the World Youth Championships the following year. Reid was then an ex-fighter for six years.
Doctors told the Derby boxer she had a degenerative disc disease in her back and she said: “It would have got worse if I had carried on training at that level at my age.
“The break (from boxing) allowed my body to get stronger and develop. It was the right choice to make. If I had carried on, I might have lasted another three years and never been able to box again.”
Now 26 years old, Reid stayed in the gym and says it was the success of younger brother Duane that brought her back to competing.
“I got my Level Two coaching certificate during the break,” she said. “I was working with kids, doing non-contact boxing and working nine-to-five (in the NHS). The nine-tofive wasn’t really for me and I started to miss boxing.
“Boxing is in my family. My dad (Duane) and grandad (Brian Hinkley) are both coaches and I was never far away from it. I was in the corner handing up to my dad when my brother (Duane) was boxing and the feelings started to come back, the adrenaline, the excitement. I thought: ‘I miss this.’
“My brother had a run of 10 straight wins and seeing him doing really well influenced me to start again. I decided I needed to put my gloves back on.”
Reid made a smooth return, winning the NAC Championship at 70kgs in Newcastle last April before going on to pick up bronze medals at the Silesian Open, Tammer tournament and more recently, the World Boxing Cup: GB Open, up at 75kgs.
At the latter, Reid had a stoppage over Irina Schoenberger, a German who won bronze at last year’s European Games in Poland.
“I only found out what she’s done after we boxed,” said Reid. “I didn’t do any research before the bout and I’m glad I didn’t because I would have been more nervous.”
Reid gave Shoenberger three counts with well-placed, heavy punches and says she’s comfortable competing at 75kgs.
“I don’t have an issue,” said Reid, who was beaten in the last four in Sheffield by Cindy Ngamba. “I’ve been doing strength and conditioning and make the weight well and my thing is my speed. I like
‘IF I HAD CARRIED ON, I MIGHT HAVE LASTED ANOTHER THREE YEARS AND NEVER BEEN ABLE TO BOX AGAIN’
being faster than them and picking my shots. I can use my speed and power at 75kgs. I’m performing better than ever now and I have confidence in my body.”
Reid returned from a training camp in Italy earlier this month with her confidence boosted.
“The spars went really well,” she said. “I left that camp feeling very confident and if the girls I sparred lost a bit of confidence as well, that has to be to my advantage. They have only got two weeks to adapt if I meet them in the qualifiers. I walked way from there thinking: ‘I know I can do more if I box them.’”
Reid says that given her international experience, “the occasion won’t affect my performance” in Busto Arsizio and fighting is nothing new to her.
Father Duane started out as a kickboxer before switching to boxing and having three professional fights. Chantelle has taken a similar path. “I was probably five when I started doing pads with my dad,” she said. “I did kickboxing and won European and
World titles. That was the most you could achieve in the sport. It wasn’t an Olympic sport. There were more opportunities in boxing so I made the switch when I was 13.”
Reid, who had 35 kickboxing bouts, was chucked in at the deep end. Her first competition was the European Union Junior Championships in Hungary in 2013 – and she came home with gold.
To win gold, Reid beat Surmeneli Busenaz in the final and the Turk went on to win World Championships in 2019 and 2022, along with Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2020.
Busenaz has also qualified for this year’s Paris Games, winning gold at last year’s European Games in Poland at 66kgs after beating Rosie Eccles (Wales) in the semi finals, and that is now Reid’s target.
“Dad is over the moon to see me boxing and doing well again,” she said, “but the job’s not done yet. I need to qualify for the Olympics and get that gold medal.”