Welsh boxer Rosie Eccles has won Wales' seventh gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Light-middleweight Eccles beat Australia's Kaye Scott with a brilliant display comprising of relentless attacks which forced two standing counts before the referee ended the fight in the second round with a third and final standing count.
Eccles, 26, is only the second Welsh woman to win Commonwealth boxing gold after Lauren Price, who went on to become Olympic champion in Tokyo last summer.
"I thought if there's ever the opportunity, take it," said Eccles. "To get it by stoppage in the final, I have no words."
Her achievement comes after she claimed silver in the welterweight category four years ago on the Gold Coast. "To be on the number two podium last time round, it hurt," she said. "To now be on top - I am going to have my national anthem played, I can't believe it."
Eccles has overcome a number of career setbacks, including nerve damage in her arm in 2020 which left her fearing for her career and in chronic pain. She suffered the injury just weeks before the original 2020 Olympic qualifying event in London in March 2020, going on to lose her opening fight - her only shot at Tokyo.
"It was heartbreaking," she said. "The team I have got around me, if you could write down the perfect team, I have got it."
But she returned to full fitness ahead of the Games to make it into the history books.
"I am stubborn and a glutton for punishment. There have been some close calls, my health has been really not great. Training has been at times horrendous just to get through it. It's been a mission to say the least. But I have real faith in my team. They said even though you feel bad, you are looking good. I just kept that faith."
Eccles started her boxing journey aged 16 after trying a local boxercise class in Caldicot, which led to her joining her local boxing club Chepstow ABC, while she also boxed at Pontypool ABC. She joined the full-time boxing programme at 18 while attending Cardiff Metropolitan University for her degree and masters, training at Sport Wales and with Team GB in Sheffield.
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