In a sporting tradition dating back to its founding by Gerry O’Mahony of Dungarvan Boxing Club in 2013, the Celtic Box Cup has ascended to become Ireland’s most esteemed international boxing tournament.
This year’s event happened from Sept. 22 to the 24, and the West Shore’s Terris Smith brought a gold medal to Canada in the 60 kg elite female class.
“Terris Smith has been boxing for about 10 years now. She has 40 fights. She is a provincial champion and silver medalist at the nationals,” said Jason Heit, her coach.
To get this far, Smith had to work hard.
“I started boxing by going to a boxing camp where you would be training for eight weeks,” said Smith. “After that, I kept going and I started to box after on a professional program. I went to a national in 2019. Then COVID made everything stop and we got back after. This year, I already went to Mexico, San Francisco, Calgary, Montreal.
“The training was good, and we got ready in Montreal prior to going to Ireland. Training is always busy and as much as we don’t have a lot of female athletes in Victoria, we had a very strong team that played an important part in the winning.”
Now the target is the Olympics.
“We’re going to compete in the provincials on the first week of November and then the nationals on the first week of December. If we win the provincials we can qualify for nationals and winning the nationals we will qualify for the Olympic team. Hopefully, we will make Team Canada and be on the Olympic pathway.”
For the next generation of female athletes, Smith has this to say: “If you like it go for it. Be consistent, persevere along the way, and have fun doing it.”
READ MORE: Mac Neil puts golden stamp on historic Pan Am Games performance