BY DYLAN MANGAN
CHRISTINA Desmond wasn’t supposed to be at the Women’s European Boxing Championships.
She had been away from the Irish high performance boxing unit for much of this year, after missing out on being picked for the World Championships in May.
‘Their excuse was that I have a job, which I didn’t think was fair,’ she told this week’s Star Sport Podcast.
The garda is one of the longest-serving members of the high performance unit, having been involved for nearly ten years since her days as a youth Olympian. She’s been around at the elite level for longer than star Kellie Harrington.
In the past, she’s won multiple Irish titles and a European bronze medal. At the still young age of 26 she’s one of the more senior members of a remarkable group of Irish boxers.
And yet, it was a stroke of luck that led to her most recent triumph.
Four weeks before the European Championships, Lisa O’Rourke pulled out through injury. Christina got a call.
‘I kind of was in a bad mindset, I didn’t like boxing and wanted to quit it,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to train or nothing. The training I was doing wasn’t even much boxing, it was just to keep my fitness and my head straight.’
Four weeks later she went to Montenegro and boxed her way to a silver medal.
Despite disappointment at losing out on gold in the final via split decision against Armenian Ani Hovsepyan, Christina believes the short turnaround might have helped her.
‘Coming back was a big decision for me, and you know what it was, I said I’ll just do it for me,’ she said. ‘And it was for me alone, it was for no one else and I think that actually was the best thing because I had no pressure, no one expected anything of me.
‘Even the coaches didn’t expect anything from me, it was just kind of “here, we’ll give you the chance to go” so I just had to take it on and I did. I haven’t boxed that well in a long while, but the four weeks in training beforehand was hard and physical so it paid off.’
Christina is now part of a record-breaking team who came home with seven medals – the most of any Irish team ever. While boxing is an individual sport, there was a real team spirit evident at the tournament.
‘If there was someone down we’d pick each other up,’ Christina said. ‘It can be hard, you’re away from family, away from friends and you’re emotionally and physically drained and you’re nervous about competition but the team was fantastic and every one of them did well out there.’
That support of boxers who know what each other are going through was invaluable to Christina, just as the support from home has been throughout her career to date.
She got a predictably great reception on her arrival back to Cill na Martra last week.
‘It’s so good to come home to such support,’ she said. ‘I don’t think anyone else could get the support I’ve gotten in the past week or two and everyone saw the fight, everyone watched it – if I knew that before I fought I’d say I’d be under a lot more pressure!
‘They all met last weekend in our local village in our pub to watch my fights on the Friday and the Saturday, and I believe there were a lot of late nights there on the back of my achievements so it’s massive to see.
Like her counterparts Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington, Christina Desmond is now inspiring the next generation.
‘The kids – they were just in awe of maybe not me but my medal and “that girl was on television and now she’s here” – it was just crazy.
’I visited the national school that I went to and they couldn’t believe that I went to school there. For me that’s mad, like, I’m just a local girl, so it’s been amazing.’
Four weeks training and that ‘local girl’ is a European silver medallist – not bad going for someone who has a job.
