Good luck message was Bolt out of the blue, says Adams (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Good luck message was Bolt out of the blue, says Nicola Adams

6:10pm Friday 3rd August 2012 in Sport

When Britain’s best female boxer Nicola Adams takes to the ring for her first bout on Monday, she will have some illustrious figures backing her for victory.

Adams, the World number three and European champion, who began her amateur career in Bradford, has been given a personal message of support from the fastest man on the planet, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

She bumped into Bolt in the Olympic Village, where he posed for a picture and wished the talented boxer good luck ahead of Monday’s quarter-final fight in the women’s flyweight (51kg) class.

Named by the BBC as one of six promising Britons to watch in London, Adams said: “I was on my way to the dining hall and he was behind me having photos.

“He’s very tall, I asked for a picture and he was happy to talk. He’s a friendly guy. I was over the moon I had a photo with him and he wished me luck with the boxing.”

London 2012 is the first time women’s boxing has been showcased and to many, Adams and her team-mates Savannah Marshall and Natasha Jonas are seen as great role models. Known as the ‘friendly face of boxing’, Adams added: “I always thought that one day women’s boxing would be part of the Olympics. It’s every athlete’s dream to get to the Games and win a medal so when the announcement was made I was over the moon.

“It’s a sport that I love doing and it’s nice to get some recognition for the years I’ve been training and for young girls to have someone to look up to. I used to look up to Muhammed Ali, so it’s nice to have someone to look up to like that,” she added.

Once an extra in TV soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street, Adams fought for years with no funding, taking up a number of jobs to aid her Olympic dream. But the talented 29-year-old is close to achieving her lifelong dream, and says the struggle has definitely paid off.

She said: “My motivation is my love for the sport; I’ve always loved boxing as I’ve grown up with a family who love watching boxing. I have so much joy and love for the sport even when there was no funding involved I still wanted to be a part of it.

"I was trying to do everything at once, work, study and train, and thankfully it’s all paid off."