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'I never imagined I’d be sitting here now': Carly McNaul better than ever ahead of Birmingham tilt

Since landing silver on the Gold Coast four years ago, there were times when Carly McNaul thought her days of trading leather were gone. Now, days out for the start of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, she is better than ever. Neil Loughran talks to the east Belfast woman…

Carly McNaul, pictured during a media workout at Jordanstown, has her heart set on gold at the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Picture by Hugh Russell
Carly McNaul, pictured during a media workout at Jordanstown, has her heart set on gold at the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Picture by Hugh Russell Carly McNaul, pictured during a media workout at Jordanstown, has her heart set on gold at the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Picture by Hugh Russell

THE conversation is flowing rightly until a bit of turbulence interrupts the other end of the line. For a while everything goes quiet, bar the odd bit of rustling, before a raised voice takes over.

“Are you alright there?” comes the initial, menacing line of inquiry.

“Yes I’m grand, can you hear m…”

“I SAID ARE YOU ALLLLRIGHT THERE???”

“Um, yeah. Is everything… okay?”

“HAVE YOU NOTHING BETTER TO BE AT?!”

“Do you want me to call you back?”

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Carly McNaul is laughing her head off. The object of that sudden ire had been a traffic warden hovering around her car as she approached from a distance.

Needless to say, he soon fled the scene, face the same colour as his jacket.

“Sorry about that,” she giggles upon returning to the call, “did I scare you?”

There is no need to answer this question. The east Belfast woman might be small in stature but she is more than capable of fighting her own corner – both inside and outside the ring.

And, even in the four years since bulldozing her way to a silver medal at the last Commonwealth Games, McNaul has had to overcome serious setbacks including potentially career-ending injuries, Olympic disappointment and the belief that her fighting days were done.

Yet here she is, at 33 the oldest member of Team NI, on the cusp of a second crack at the Commonwealths. Making the new 50kg limit has added stress she could have done without but, in terms of performances, McNaul has never been better.

For evidence of how she has transitioned from Gold Coast brawler to a more methodical operator, look no further than May’s World Championships when she finished fifth at flyweight, or the Eindhoven Cup a few weeks later when McNaul picked up the best boxer award.

‘Wrecking Ball’ is still in there if needed, but the new, improved version is all the better for a more measured approach.

“It sounds stupid, but it’s like I’ve found my brain.

“Before, I was just boxing out of heart. That’s what I knew - just fighting on emotion. When I watch my fights back from the last Commonwealths… I was crap. I am my own worst critic, but I see so many mistakes, and see how much better I’ve got.

“I watch them fights back almost like - is that me? Sometimes it’s hard to believe the difference. Now I stay relaxed. It’s through being in the High Performance, I believe.

“Wee things like distance… like, I would never have realised before what punch to throw in what distance, but it’s all just from experience and learning that I can fight if I need to fight, but I can also use my brain.

“Even simple things like throwing a ball against a wall and catching it – simple hand-eye co-ordination. Nearly every person I’m fighting’s coming away with a big bubble on their eye because I’m far more accurate, I’m timing my punches better.

“During the pandemic I was working on all those things coming back from injury.”

Indeed, victory at last December’s Ulster elites ended a 21 month exodus, partly as a consequence of Covid, but also because of a broken femur and then surgery to correct a scratched cornea.

Even though boxing has been a major part of her life for the past 19 years, there were times thoughts of a return couldn’t have been any further from McNaul’s thoughts – and never moreso than after her final pre-pandemic fight.

A last minute call-up for the 2020 Olympic qualifiers in London, she had less than a fortnight to get ready for the challenge and, as the first Irish fighter between the ropes, it all proved too much as she lost out to England’s Charley-Sian Davison.

“I was in a bad place… I never imagined I’d be sitting here now," said McNaul, who boxes out of the Ormeau Road club.

“That was the toughest defeat I’ve ever had, I’ll never forget going back into the changing room, remembering what I said and where my head was. I was really bad.

“That wasn’t me that day, I put far too much pressure on myself. Then when I came back and Covid had hit, that just made everything worse. That was me, I was going into retirement.

“It took a lot of time to come around, to thinking ‘no, don’t stop’. For me, coming back at the Ulsters, knowing the Commonwealths were coming up, I came off social media and went and showed everybody what I could do.

“From that, I’ve just kept getting better and better.”

No matter what happens in Birmingham, there is no intention of turning her back on the sport she loves. Long training camps are never easy for those at the lower weights, while she misses 12-year-old son Jaden every day she’s away.

But it is him, and the new lease of life that brought her back to boxing, which provide the driving force. Silver last time, coming out of nowhere. This time she is one of the names in the division – only gold will do.

“It’s so hard being away from him [Jadon] but that gives me more drive to do it for him and to help change our lives.

“Going to Australia last time, I was a complete underdog - no-one knew who I was because I never really took boxing seriously before.

“I started when I was 14, things like making weight, I didn’t know anything about it. That’s why I won the Ulsters at 70 kilos one year - it was just a case of ‘you’re fighting in a few weeks’, ‘am I? Okay’. I’d have got on the scales at any weight and fought at any weight.

“Then you come through different gyms and realise you actually have a bit of talent there, so I started knuckling down a bit more. To be honest, it’s a lot to do with lifestyle outside of the gym as well, and I’ve changed my whole lifestyle.

“I just live for boxing now, I’m far more strict with myself where my diet’s concerned, just everything I do - I’ve finally become professional. I finally feel like I’m preparing like an elite athlete.

“I want gold, but this is only a stepping stone to bigger things. I’m not wanting to finish any time soon. I’m not putting a time limit on it, there’s no need to.

“There’s no stopping me at the minute. That’s been the big difference – I actually truly believe in myself now.”