ORDINARILY, it should have been one of the biggest weeks of Leah Gallen’s young life.
The recently-turned 18-year-old boxer was due to punch in her first day as a quantity surveying student on Monday at Letterkenny Institute of Technology.
This weekend, Gallen was due to begin her quest to win a seventh Irish title.
However, the Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions that came into place in Dublin saw the Open Youth Championships postponed.
The Raphoe ABC star still hopes to get to the European Championships in Montenegro later in the year, but it is a time of uncertainty for the six-time Irish champion.
“I was supposed to have the Championships this week, but they got cancelled when Dublin locked down again,” Gallen says.
“It was so disappointing for me. I was training flat out building my fitness and sharpness. I had myself built up again and it’s a big let down.
“Hopefully I’ll still get the Europeans in November. Time will tell. We don’t know if we are taking a team out or if we can take a team out.
“I have to train as if they’re on now.”
Earlier this year, Gallen defeated Crumlin’s Shelby Myers in the Irish Under-18 decider.
Last September, she won a European Youth bronze in Bulgaria.
There, she defeated Annemarie Schierle and Gulcan Arga before losing out to Csulla Ambrus in a semi-final.
In 2018, Gallen won bronze at the European Junior Championships in Russia.
She also has her eyes on bigger things, too.
She says: “The Worlds are supposed to be coming at the start of 2021 too and they have to be a target for me.”
The Third Level Championships and Under-22s would have been on the bill in normal times.
But in these strange days, Gallen still has to put in the hard yards with big days remaining possible.
She says: “With boxing, a lot of the stuff involves training by yourself so it’s not too much of a change.
“Even though we don’t know, I just have to stay on my ‘A’ game now and keep going. I have to be ready.”
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