CHEPSTOW’S Rosie Eccles faces a formidable route to a medal at the Olympics after the draw for the boxing.
The 28-year-old, who won bronze at the European Games to secure her spot in Paris, gets her challenge under way in the welterweight division on Sunday morning.
Eccles will go up against Aneta Rygielska of Poland – who she lost to in the quarter-finals of the 2022 European Championships – in the preliminaries at 11.52am with the winner facing a tough fight in round two against Busenaz Surmeneli on Thursday (10.48am).
The 26-year-old Turkish fighter won gold in Tokyo three years ago, is a double World Championships winner, last year triumphed at the European Games and was on top of the podium in the European Championships in Belgrade in April.
Surmeneli beat Eccles 4-1 in the semi-finals of the European Games and has a record of 48 wins and 7 losses in the amateur ranks.
The Gwent fighter, who won Commonwealth Games gold at light-middleweight two years ago, will be an underdog in Paris but is fuelled by past frustration.
Eccles suffered nerve damage ahead of her Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier, losing to welterweight Saadat Dalgatova, and then was denied a second shot when Covid forced the cancellation of a London qualifier.
“I’m ready to go out and achieve what I know I can achieve,” she said before heading for France.
“I’ve waited my whole life for this. I've had plenty of ups and downs, but all that heartache is only going to help.”
The women's welterweight competition runs through to the final on Friday, August 9.
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