Kelly Morgan (athlete)

Kelly Morgan
Personal information
Nationality British
Born (1980-06-17) 17 June 1980
Durrington, Wiltshire
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[1]
Weight 72.5 kg (160 lb)[2]
Sport
Sport
Weight class Middleweight[1]
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) Javelin: 64.87 m (2002)
Medal record
Javelin throw
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
2002 Javelin throw

Kelly Morgan (born 17 June 1980) is a British boxer. She won the WBC female silver middleweight belt in June 2016. Prior to taking up boxing, she represented the England development team in netball, and represented England and the United Kingdom in the javelin throw.

Sports

Javelin

Morgan started throwing the javelin at age 11, picking up a boy's javelin at her school and throwing it further than any of the boys.[3] She went on to win the English schools junior girls title in 1994, then a year later at age 15 won the AAA under 20 title, resulting in her being called up to the British junior squad. Injury caused her to miss two seasons, but she retook the AAA under 20 title in 1998, and represented the UK in the World Junior Championships.[4][5]

In 1999, with a new model of javelin being introduced, Morgan took the UK junior record with a throw of 54.61 m (179.2 ft), going on to win the AAA senior title in 2000, when she also broke two British under 23 records.[3][5]

Further injury held Morgan back, but she nonetheless represented the United Kingdom in the 2002 European Athletics Championships and England in the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where she achieved third place.[5] 2002 was by far Morgan's best year for javelin: she broke multiple records, including with her personal best of 64.87 m (212.8 ft), and at one point ranked second in the world.[5][6]

Morgan required multiple cortisone injections to get through the 2002 season, and had an operation to shave away part of the acromion process towards the end of that year.[6] That operation led to a secondary problem, however, and as a result she did not compete in 2003. Instead she intended to focus on the 2004 Olympic Games,[7] but was unable to overcome her injuries to be able to compete.[8]

Netball

In 2001, Morgan competed for the English development team in netball, playing against the world champion Australian team.[6]

Boxing

Morgan started amateur boxing while in the British Army in 2007, but only had a small number of fights due to Army commitments. However, in July 2015, she switched to professional boxing, winning her first four bouts, including against world number two Szilvia Szabados, and claiming the World Boxing Council's silver middleweight belt.[9][10][11]

Morgan said in July 2016 that she expects the World Boxing Council to schedule "one more fight for me at 10 rounds for the [silver middleweight] title defence and then the next one will be [the world female middleweight] title shot."[11] Her manager and trainer said in August 2016 that they were "working towards a ticking-over fight in September ... we are also looking at October/November for a world title fight."[12]

Personal life

Morgan was born in Dover and brought up in Durrington, Wiltshire.[5][13] The daughter of Sarah, who played netball, and Russ, an amateur boxer and Army physical training instructor, she tried a large number of sports before finding a niche with the javelin.[14]

Outside of sport, Morgan was in the Royal Air Force until 2000, when she left to concentrate on javelin. At the end of 2001 she rejoined the armed forces, this time in the British Army, where she served until 2012, reaching the rank of sergeant in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps.[5][14][15][16]

Between leaving the army and beginning her boxing career, Morgan spent some time travelling, including working as a personal trainer in Qatar.[16]

Results

Javelin

Year Competition Venue Position Notes
Representing the  United Kingdom and  England
1998 World Junior Championships Annecy, France 18th (q) 46.58 m (old spec.)
2002 Commonwealth Games Manchester, United Kingdom 3rd 57.09 m
European Championships Munich, Germany 12th 53.89 m

Boxing

4 Wins (1 knockout)[1]
Res. Record Opponent Type Rd., Time Date Location Notes
Win 4–0 Germany Lisa Cielas UD 8 (8×2) 10 June 2016 Grand Leisure Centre, Swindon WBC Silver female middleweight title fight
Win 3–0 Hungary Szilvia Szabados PTS 6 (6×2) 20 December 2015 Grand Leisure Centre, Swindon
Win 2–0 Hungary Melinda Lazar PTS 6 (6×2) 24 October 2015 Oasis Leisure Centre, Swindon
Win 1–0 Hungary Klaudia Vigh TKO 1 (6×2), 1:34 18 July 2015 Bath Pavilion, Bath Professional debut

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Kelly Morgan". BoxRec. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Biography". Kelly Morgan Boxing. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Neil (16 July 2002). "Athletics: Kelly makes no bones of her target". Daily Mail. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  4. ↑ Peters, Lionel; Magnusson, Tomas (19 January 2013). "World Junior Athletics History". Javelin 600g old spec. (-1998) Women. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brown, Matthew (22 July 2002). "Kelly Morgan, Echoes of Sanderson and Whitbread". IAAF. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 Turnbull, Simon (22 December 2002). "Athletics: Year of the Big Breakthrough – Kelly Morgan". The Independent. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Morgan opts out of season". BBC Sport. 18 July 2003. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  8. ↑ Fordyce, Tom (7 August 2003). "Injury list grows for Team GB". BBC Sport. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Steele-Davis, Andrew (21 December 2015). "Morgan describes her triumph over Szabados as her best yet". FLIC Wiltshire. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  10. ↑ Reeves, Michael (21 December 2015). "Boxing: Morgan stuns world number two Szabados". Swindon Advertiser. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 Edwards, Matthew (13 July 2016). "Swindon's WBC Silver middleweight champion Kelly Morgan outlines plan for her to battle for full world crown". Swindon Advertiser. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Reeves, Michael (4 August 2016). "Kelly Morgan's trainer Rich Farnan admits his fighter may not have home advantage when she challenges for world crown". Swindon Advertiser. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  13. ↑ Bruce-Ball, Jim (21 July 2002). "Athletics: Morgan revives the good old days". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  14. 1 2 Reeves, Michael (13 May 2015). "After javelin and netball, Kelly steps into the ring". Swindon Advertiser. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  15. ↑ Gallagher, Brendan (24 July 2002). "Morgan just a throw away from glory". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  16. 1 2 Flexen, Danny (16 November 2015). "Meet boxing's real-life G.I. Jane". Boxing News. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
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