Athlete swaps Grand National dreams for claiming boxing gold medal for Team NI at the Commonwealth Games

The former point-to-point jockey has given up the saddle for the ring and is part of a 12 strong squad looking to emulate their counterparts four years ago when Team NI topped the boxing medal table in Birmingham.

“It's completely surreal...it's something that I once wrote down, I still write it down every day: I am going, I am going, I am; I believe that having that mindset, seeing things before they happen, seeing things before they're even created is a massive factor in any sport,” Hill said.

“I had a bit of a sacrificial lifestyle before I put on the gloves and it's something I loved, I dearly loved.

“I was working with horses for 14 years, I rode on a couple of point-to-points and I sort of didn't pursue that career and I left my job maybe seven weeks ago to fully commit to boxing.”

Taking the hard falls in horse racing has toughened up the 70kg Ulster Elite champion for the ring.

She explained: “It’s like saying you have never had a bloody nose in boxing. What goes up must come down in racing and it is tough. AP McCoy for example broke every bone in his body.

“It is a lifestyle where you wake up and face your fears, and as Mike Tyson once said, ‘fear has to be your best friend', and I fully believe that is massive.

“You have got to believe in yourself, especially when there are people out there that are going to doubt you in racing, boxing or any sport, you have got to back yourself.

“Racing is tough on the body as well as the mind. It is a lonely sport, not everybody wants to see you doing well,” said Hill, who was raised in Ballycarry before moving to Templepatrick, and is now boxing out of the famous Holy Trinity club in Belfast’s Turf Lodge.

“You have to fight for a position in the field, and you have to fight for a position in boxing.”

It was a former world champion that convinced Hill to box.

“I actually started boxing when I was 15 to keep fit with Ryan Burnett before he became a coach or had a gym," she continued.

“I started doing pad work with him. It was the equivalent of the fitness I needed to sustain improving my situation in the saddle.

“Ryan had told me one day ‘why don’t you fight?'. I was like I don’t know because I'm kind of an all in or all out kind of person.

“I didn’t want to look left or right with the situation I was in with racing. It was a dream of mine to be a competitor in the Grand National, not only to be a competitor but to win. However, slowly but surely the boxing crept into my veins.

“I had this thing inside me that made me think that I was meant for more.

“I started boxing and I reached out to Sean McComb about a year later after Ryan’s comment which he never said to me again, I asked Sean if there was a boxing club I could get into.

“I said to Sean I don’t know anything about boxing but I know I’m willing. Sean said, 'I'll try to speak to Michael Hawkins and get you into Holy Trinity' and that man has been my saving grace.

“Michael has helped me achieve Ulster titles, Antrim titles; just being able to listen to how Michael talks, to watch how he trains other athletes in the club has been part of my success and being able to watch that it has been top class.”

Without the influence of Hawkins, the Ballycarry native believes she wouldn’t be going to Glasgow.

She stressed: “Micky Hawkins, the way I can explain this without sounding felicitous he is my Cus D’Amato (Mike Tyson’s trainer and mentor).

"He is a brilliant guy, he’s a brilliant person, he knows his stuff. To be able to listen and learn and for a coach to have that bond with an athlete is mandatory for the next step in any sport.

“I’m an all in or all out person and all my life all I have known is work, getting up at 4am, go to the farm and working with horses all day.

"As soon as I finished work, [I had] a quick shower, changed and I went training to get good at what I was doing.

"All of a sudden, whenever I started boxing, Ryan had said to me that time, 'why don't you fight?'

"I never really took it into consideration as such but then whenever I started, I started writing this down: I started writing down, ‘I am a champion, I am a winner, I am the best in the world’. And not only my success that I've achieved and I'm wanting to achieve.

“Part of my success is that I want to give back. And for me to do that, I've got to be me, I've got to be me in this world, and it's part of my success that I give back, that's part of my gold medal.”

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will take place in Glasgow from July 23 to August 2.