Thessa Dumas of Mauritius (right) is hit by Michaela Walsh of Northern Ireland during their women’s flyweight boxing fight.
Northern Ireland’s Michaela Walsh on Monday became the first woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing match, as she overcame Thessa Dumas of Mauritius 3-0.
The 21-year-old told reporters the experience had been like “Christmas morning”.
“It was brilliant to be (in) the first woman’s fight, it still hasn’t sunk in. I was just so excited to get in today,” said Walsh after the bout at the SECC in Glasgow.
Women’s boxing is being included for the first time on the Commonwealth Games programme, and athletes are competing in three categories: fly, light and middle.
Nicola Adams, who in 2012 became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title, also prevailed in her first bout, one of three which took place in the fly category.
She comfortably beat Nigeria’s Oluwatoyin Oladeji 3-0 in four two-minute rounds.
It was an “absolutely amazing” feeling to be present on such an historic occasion, the 31-year-old said, adding that it ranked “as high as the Olympic Games for me.”
Asked whether the pressure of being one of boxing’s top stars was getting to her, she said: “The fact that everybody thinks that I can win, and they think that I will win gold gives me the confidence to keep on going and think ‘yeah I can do it’.”
She now faces Erandi de Silva of Sri Linka in a quarter final on Wednesday, while Walsh takes on Sarah Joy Rae of Jamaica.
But Walsh said she was not afraid of meeting Adams in a later fight:
“I’d love to meet her, I wish I’d met her tonight, I don’t fear no one at all. She’s the golden girl at this here, but there’s a new golden girl coming.”
The women’s debut was also warmly welcomed by the men boxing earlier in the day.
“I think it’s brilliant, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be (allowed to compete), there’s a lot of great female boxers and they should be (allowed) to perform same as everyone else does,” said Northern Ireland’s Connor Coyle.
Uganda’s Fazil Juma Kaggwa agreed, saying he favoured Indian boxers Laishram Devi, Pinki Rani and Pooja Rani, none of whom were competing on Monday, to win gold.
“Mostly the Indian girls are good, they have potential, they are good in scoring, I think they will win,” he said. Now to see how much this sport prospers.