Mayo boxer to contest European Under 19 Championships

Mayo boxer Grace Bailey has travelled to Loznica in Serbia this week to compete in the European Under 19 Boxing Championships.

Grace won her second All-Ireland boxing title back in May and along with training throughout the week in Castlebar Boxing Club, she has been travelling to Dublin most weekends for additional work in the High Performance Unit in Abbottstown.

The Castlebar girl burst on to the boxing scene at the age of 13 and lifted the top national award in her first year in the sport – something not only remarkable but very rare.

Bailey's most recent win is even more special as she got to avenge her defeats in the past two finals by beating a very worthy opponent 5-0 in all three rounds. It was a very convincing win by anyone's standards. In doing so, Grace lifted the Under 19 national title at just 17 years of age.

Grace will be competing in Serbia this week against girls most probably a full year her senior, but it will take a lot more than that to faze this girl.

Last year she competed in Under 18 competition in the Porto Box Cup, and also in the Zagreb Boxing Queen Cup, again at a year junior to her competitors, and won both titles. She also picking up the best junior boxer award in Zagreb.

Grace is very committed to her sport and has put in seriously hard work in her preparation for the European Championships.

Along with her already full training schedule, so far in 2026 she has travelled to compete, train and spar in Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Washington DC.

All at Castlebar Boxing Club are immensely proud of Grace and hope that she grabs this experience with both hands and embraces it, learns from it, and lets it help her to be the best version of herself.

The first competition day in the city of Loznica is tomorrow (Thursday, August 13), while the finals will take place on August 21.