- nigel ringland
- BBC Sports NI
image source, ©INPHO/Laszlo Getzo
Broadhurst lost to England's Rosie Eccles in the quarter-finals of the European competition in June 2023.
Irish boxer Amy Broadhurst believes her chances of competing at the Paris Olympics are over.
World, European and Commonwealth Games champions announce Irish Amateur Boxing Association [IABA] announced that he will not be participating in the 2nd World Qualifying Tournament scheduled to be held in Bangkok at the end of May.
Broadhurst said the High Performance Unit wanted to evaluate another world champion, Lisa O'Rourke, 27, for the next European Championships instead of sending her to Thailand.
She says that won't happen.
“I'm a bit confused and struggling to understand what's going on,” she told BBC Sport NI.
“I told my psychologist that I would not be going to a high performance center for the foreseeable future, and I am seriously considering not going back at all.”
When contacted by BBC Sport NI, the IABA would not comment on Mr Broadhurst's comments as selection in all weight classes has not yet taken place.
The Olympic qualifiers have yet to be decided, but it appears Irish champion Grainne Walsh will be selected to go to Thailand.
The Offaly boxer narrowly missed out on a place at the Paris Olympics after suffering a shocking split decision loss in a quarter fight earlier this month.
Broadhurst believed that the three boxers eligible for selection would be evaluated together for a chance to be selected for the tie qualifiers.
She now believes that will never happen again.
“Grainne performed well in the preliminaries, but with all due respect, his opponents were not average boxers like the Turks or the Chinese,” Broadhurst said.
“That Polish girl who hit her [Aneta Rygielska] I won't win a medal at the Olympics. If you look at the results and everything else, I beat the same Paul 5-0, so I honestly don't understand the thought process. ”
image source, ©INPHO/Aleksandar Jorovic
In May 2022, Broadhurst (center) defeats Algeria's Imane Kerif (left) to win the women's light welterweight world championship gold medal.
Despite losing to Walsh in a close 2023 national final, Broadhurst was selected to compete at the European Games in Poland last June after an internal evaluation process.
She lost her match to Team GB boxer Rosie Eccles in the quarter-finals, but had she won she would have qualified for the Olympics.
Broadhurst and O'Rourke missed this year's Irish Nationals, where Walsh defended his title, due to injury, and were given the chance to compete for Ireland's welterweight spot at the Olympics in Italy.
When that didn't happen, Broadhurst believed she would have a chance to keep her Olympic dream alive and that her record would speak for itself.
“As a head coach, when I pick a team, my main objective is who can win an Olympic medal. In the last five tournaments I've represented Ireland in, I've come away with gold medals in four of the five tournaments.” she said.
“I lost at the European Championships because of a lot of things going on behind the scenes, but I still didn't perform to the best of my ability and lost in a close split decision 3-2.
“Everyone deserves a chance. I deserved a chance to try again. The fair thing to do in that situation was for all three of us to fight for that chance.”
Broadhurst says he intends to appeal any decision regarding selection, but is considering a switch to professional boxing and does not have high expectations of success.
For now, Broadhurst seems resigned to missing out on the trip to Paris.
“My plan after the Olympics was always to go professional, but originally when I started boxing it wasn't my ambition to become a professional boxer, and not achieving my goal 22 years ago was very It's hard to deal with and feels like a waste of 'time.
“I've missed out on a lot of things in my life because of boxing. It was all for one tournament. It's disgusting to have that taken away without a chance.”
