On Friday night Owain Harris-Allan returned to a hero's welcome at his boxing club in Cardiff. It was a joyful affair featuring speeches from his coach and others from Apollos ABC in Llanedeyrn, the club he calls home in more ways than one. A proper homecoming for the teenager was nothing less than he deserved less than a week after he claimed a bronze medal for Team Wales at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
On Saturday August 6 the young boxer, just 18 years old, narrowly lost his men's bantamweight semi-final against Ghana's Abraham Mensah on a split decision. While disappointed to miss out on a final fight, coming home with a Commonwealth medal was something few would have believed could happen so early in Harris-Allan's career. Twelve months ago, it looked almost unthinkable.
Harris-Allan's route to success has been far from straightforward. Along his way he has battled mental health issues, the traumatic death of his mother and brushes with the law before turning his life around and becoming one of the most highly-rated young boxers in Wales and a future Olympic prospect.
Harris-Allan grew up in Llanedeyrn about four miles east of Cardiff city centre, the middle child of three boys (one brother is a year younger, the other is 29) who all lived at home with his mum and dad. He said he struggled at school from an early age, often fighting with other children and regularly finding himself in trouble.
"I was a little sh*t as a kid," Harris-Allan said speaking from Apollos ABC the morning after his homecoming celebrations. "I was getting kicked out of primary schools, getting excluded from high schools, this and that," he explained, adding that he got "a couple of GCSEs" before eventually leaving school halfway through sixth form.
Describing himself as a "bouncy" child, Harris-Allan was diagnosed with ADHD when he was still in primary school, which he said explained why he struggled in classroom situations. "I think I was maybe ten. And obviously that's why I found it hard to concentrate and sit in lessons. I got put in different classes and that with smaller amounts of people. Like when I was doing my exams I couldn't be in the big hall, I had to be in a separate room.
"I used to get on with everyone, because I was always the same. It was just really difficult. It affected my mental health, obviously because I was seeing people in my class doing better than me. I'm a competitive person, so it did mess up my head a bit. The people helped but school just wasn't for me."
Harris-Allan was seven years old when he first took up boxing at Apollos ABC in Llanedeyrn at his mother Lavinia's encouragement. "I used to fight in school and with all the energy and that my mum took me because of my anger issues. Boxing tired me out and gave me focus and discipline," he said.
On January 11, 2020 when he was just 16, Harris-Allan suffered a major trauma when his mum died suddenly at their home from a heart attack. He was the one who discovered her, at the time just a week before her birthday. She was just 46. "It happened in front of me, it wasn't in the hospital or anything. It happened in the house exactly a month after my birthday. I was the one that walked in first and saw her."
Harris-Allan said his mum had had stents in her heart a few years previously but that she was never very unwell until close to when she died. Tragically, she had visited the doctor the day before she died. "She always had a bad heart but it was never that bad like. But the week she died she couldn't even walk to the shop. Where I live is like a five minute walk to the shop and she couldn't even do that. I stayed off school and was going to the shop every day for her."
Harris-Allan admitted the trauma had a huge impact on him. "Me and my mum were close. Obviously I'm the middle child and was doing well with the boxing. We always used to speak to each other, have really good talks and have a good laugh. It caused me a lot of trauma, my head was baffled like. I didn't know what to do."
After his mum's death Harris-Allan became more distant with the rest of his family. He said the trauma of what happened made it difficult for him to be in the house and he is currently living with one of his best friends and a good friend of his mother. "I had too much trauma there. Every time I was going to the bathroom, because it happened in the bathroom, I was imagining stuff," he said.
At the time of her death Harris-Allan, a former pupil at St Teilo's Church in Wales High School, was still in school but admitted his head was "screwed" and he struggled to cope. Sadly, losing his mum was not to be the only tragedy he would have to deal with in 2020. Tragically he lost his grandmother a month later, and his sparring partner later died in a car crash that same year.
"I went off the rails a bit. I didn't know what to do, my head was all over the place," Harris-Allan said of that period. "I was going in [to school] but wasn't doing anything, and I don't think the teachers expected me to do anything. I was going in and doing what I wanted to do, playing pool, and people weren't really saying anything."
With everything that had happened Harris-Allan began to fall in with the wrong crowd and started getting involved in anti-social behaviour and drugs. "Obviously I started hanging around the streets and that, doing bad things. I was arguing with my dad all the time about stupid things because I was angry at myself and in general. I was close to being pulled into all the criminal stuff, which is what I didn't want.
"I stopped training for like a year. There was a lot of anti-social behaviour, getting in trouble with the police and stuff. In the area it's a normal thing because people are so disadvantaged. It's really hard to get out of Llanedeyrn and succeed."
Harris-Allan said he stopped training completely until around nine months ago when he finally listened to the calls of those who had coached and supported him at Apollos who had been trying to persuade him to come back training. Today he readily admits that if he hadn't done so, things would likely have been very different for him.
"If I carried on the way I was going I'd be in prison," he said. "The people I was hanging around with are in prison now. That's where I would have ended up if I hadn't sorted myself out. I could have either been in prison or be dead.
"Nicola and Carl [from the boxing club] kept phoning me and phoning me every three or four days [saying] 'come back to the gym, come back to the gym'. I've been with Carl as a coach since I was really young. They literally wouldn't give up on me and eventually I went back in. I was punching the bag and letting the anger out. They always kept the door open even when I was doing bad."
After he returned to training Harris-Allan was surprised to find his fitness was better than he'd expected. "It was crazy but I was fit when I went back. Literally because I was running streets getting chased all the time," he said. "I didn't think I'd be fighting fit but literally within a few weeks I'd boxed and won."
A couple of months into his training Harris-Allan won the Welsh Championships. He wasn't even in the running for Team Wales' Commonwealth Games cohort until shortly before the event after his impressive form led to him getting called up for some boxing tournaments abroad.
"I had two weeks' training, went to Serbia and drew the number three in the world," he said. "I was 18 and he was 33 with 250+ fights. It was basically like a qualifier as you have to get points with the Welsh team to qualify for the [Commonwealth] Games. Obviously I had no experience at all. I weren't even meant to be going to the Games, you know."
Astoundingly Harris-Allan claimed bronze in Belgrade, losing on a split decision, and was then invited by Team Wales to Czech Republic to fight. There he was told he would have a great chance of making the Commonwealth team if he performed well. "That was the cherry on the cake," he remembered. "They said all I had to do was go and get a win. I beat Ukraine and lost on a split decision in the final which I thought I'd won."
Less than a year after his life had almost been derailed, Harris-Allan's impressive form had the British coaches paying attention and he said he was "buzzing" when he got the call that Team Wales had selected him for the 2022 Commonwealth Games - just nine months after he'd returned to boxing.
"It was like a pro show - it was crazy," he said of arriving at the Games, which took place in July in Birmingham. "There were so many countries there that you don't normally see when you go to other international tournaments." On the biggest stage Harris-Allan again impressed; sporting eye-catching pink socks and looking every inch the part, he won his first two fights comfortably against Lesotho and Papua New Guinea respectively before a hard-fought semi-final showdown against Ghana's Abraham Mensah ended in a split decision against the Welshman.
In his short career Harris-Allan has so far achieved six-time Welsh Champion status, three-time British silver medallist, bronze at Belgrade Boxing and silver medallist Grand Prix Tournament. He joined Welsh Boxing full-time just five months ago after some impressive performances on the development programme and despite his disappointment at only getting bronze at the Commonwealth Games he said he was "very grateful" and now has his sights set on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I went in there the total underdog - people weren't expecting me to do nothing," he said, the young boxer's confidence starting to shine through as we talk about his achievements. "But I went in there and showed everyone what I'm about. I showed that I can fight and that I can box.
"I'm looking for sponsorship now. This is just the start of the beginning. I'm only 18 and I'm fighting men and making them look like donkeys. I might sound cocky and that but I'm a confident boy. When I went into these fights I wasn't nervous one bit. I felt it was me, that I should be up there.
"When I got my medal the GB coaches said to me congratulations and hopefully they'd see me up in team GB, as that's where I need to be to go to the Olympics. So hopefully I might get a call-up in the next few months. I'd like to thank Team Wales, the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association (WABA) and Team GB for all their support, it means a lot."
His life firmly in a different direction compared to 12 months ago, Harris-Allan said his ADHD has improved over the past couple of years and that he has since given up taking his medication. "I came off them because they make you feel down and depressed. They don't make you feel like yourself. I take sleeping tablets because I can't sleep. But it's gotten better now because I've grown up as a person. Boxing and sport has helped me because it keeps me occupied and keeps me busy."
While he is throwing himself into training every day Harris-Allan, who fights at around 54kg, admits there is one aspect of the boxing life he finds tough. "The diet is the worst part - the boxing is the fun part! You've got to watch what you eat like. If I've got a fight coming up I can't go and have a Dominos and that. I've got to make the weight."
According to the 2019 Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, two out of the ten regions of Pentwyn in Cardiff are among the top 10% overall most deprived areas of Wales, with large chunk of Llanedeyrn falling within that. Three out of the ten regions make up the top 10% most deprived areas of Wales with respect to income.
But Harris-Allan said the support of Apollos gym, where he has been for 11 years, had played a huge part in turning his life around and providing inspiration for young people in the area. "In the club they're literally like a family to me. Carl's been there since the start, everyone there helps me so much. If I ever need anything all I have to do is give them a call or a message and they'll be there for me. There's loads of support, a lot of the youngsters looking up to me too. It's good to have that feeling.
"The club helps people who want to help their mental health, who want to get fitter, lose some weight - it's all there. When I'm free I go and help out obviously. It's just amazing to think that I've got people behind me.
"I've got the whole of Cardiff and Llanedeyrn behind me. I want to inspire the young people around here, and show them you can succeed if you put your head and your heart to it. It doesn't matter where you're from, what your upbringing is or what's happened. If you want to do something just go for it. You only live once. If I can do it anyone can. But you've got to be up for it and want it."
Nicola Wheten, club manager at Apollos ABC, said: "We are so proud of Owain and how quickly he has turned his life around. We've supported him at the club - myself, Carl Stephens, Ryan Marshall, Mike Johnson - but ultimately it's been his choice and his decision, and this is the result. So I think the message to the wider community is that the support is there if you need it and if you look for it. Your dreams can be achieved, and Owain is a walking example of that."
Carl Stephens, head coach at Apollos, said: "I've had Owain since he was about nine years old in the gym. He's done very well in his career and won a few Welsh titles. He had an in and out career sometimes and had close decisions that should've gone his way. But he's kept at it and improved at the right time. People weren't expecting anything from him but he's ten times the fighter he was before Covid.
"He's had a difficult upbringing. His mother passed away a short time ago and a lot of kids could have gone into county lines and things like that but thankfully he's not gone that way. We've got a great club and we've gone from strength to strength and Owain's contribution has been great. He's a success story and he can only get better and better. He is obviously looking for lots of sponsorship now which would be great.
"I think in the future he will go places both in amateur and professionally. The world is his oyster."
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