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Sibling mission to Australia won’t be a family holiday for Michaela Walsh


It’s not a family holiday.

Michaela Walsh and her brother Aidan head to Australia in April looking to mine precious metal.

Both siblings were selected to represent Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games and head to the Gold Coast with medals in mind.

Ireland has been a hot-bed of boxing brothers over the years, but the Walshes are leading the way in terms of brother and sister fight siblings and there is no rivalry.

Featherweight Michaela is targeting gold and believes her welterweight brother has the ability to win the tournament outright making it a special occasion for their family and indeed Irish boxing.

“It is amazing that I will get to experience this amazing journey with my brother. I’ve always told people he is a special talent and now he has proved that, he gets to show the world how good he is,” Walsh told Irish-Boxing.com.

“This is massive for my family, everyone is so supportive of the both of us, this is our dream. Me and Aidan will both be aiming for gold, I was the same age as him now when I went to the last Games and I believe in his ability that he can go all the way.”

“How special would it be to have a brother and sister as Commonwealth champions?”

The Walsh family mantlepiece already plays host to a Commonwealth medal after Michaela’s silver medal win in Glasgow.

However, that second place finish in a prestigious competition isn’t something Walsh reflects to positively on.

In fact that reverse to Nicola Adams goes down as the ‘worst feeling in the World’ for the Belfast fighter and she is determined to top the podium Down Under.

“I always go for cold, if I didn’t then what is the point in competing? But I always aim to perform as best I can, I know I can beat anyone in the World I just always have to be confident in my own ability.”

“Last time when I won silver it was the worst feeling in the World, so I never want that feeling again, I will train as hard as I possibly can and come out in the end with a gold medal around my neck.”

It’s a reflection of Walsh’s drive and desire that she couldn’t take solace in defeat to two time Olympic gold medal winner Adams. The English star is now in the early stages of a pro career and won’t be in Australia come spring – but the Monkstown puncher doesn’t care who else will be gunning for gold and claims the biggest obstacle to success is herself.

“I am my biggest threat, it’s up to me to perform and up to me to win a gold medal,” explained Walsh before explaining how excited she is to be going to the games with her brother.

“I’m very excited about going to the Games. This will be my second Games and I get to experience with my brother. At the last ones my family was over to watch me, me and Aidan made a promise to each other that we would be at the next games together. But we are not there to see around the place, we are there to win gold medals.”

The EU gold medal winner at bantamweight is being tipped as an Olympic hopeful and the Commonwealths could be a good stage for her to further stake a claim as an Irish Tokyo hopeful, but the fighter herself doesn’t want to think too far beyond this Spring.

“Every competition is a step towards Tokyo. But I am not looking ahead, I will take every competition one step at a time.”

dpg

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