When Josh Kelly swaggered to a bronze medal on his major senior debut at the European Games in Baku last summer, he looked every bit the latest star to slide off GB Boxing's impressive production line.
But the 22-year-old's route to next month's Rio Olympic Games has not proved anything like as smooth as it may seem, with a loss of appetite the daily rigours of training threatening not only his place in Brazil, but his future in the sport.
Six months after his Baku breakthrough, Kelly stayed away from the podium squad's Sheffield headquarters and decided he had had enough. His weight ballooned and his chances of reaching Rio were all but written off.
Kelly said: "I was injured for a while and I put on loads of weight and decided I didn't want to box any more - I quit.
"The coaches were telling me to come back but I was living a normal life and looking for other options, another job. I spent two months going out with the lads on nights out, eating and drinking whatever I wanted.
"People kept coming up to me asking how my boxing was going and when I told them I'd given up they thought I was mad. I think that, and my dad telling me I'd regret not giving it another go, made the difference."
Despite embarking on a gruelling return to fitness, progress was far from easy for Kelly, and his biggest problem was convincing the GB chiefs who had invested so much in his talent that he was worth another shot.
He was overlooked for the first Olympic qualifier in Turkey in April with the welterweight place going instead to fellow north-east fighter Cyrus Pattinson. Had Pattinson reached the semi-finals, Kelly's absence from Rio would have been confirmed.
But Pattinson came up short and Kelly seized his one and only chance to join the rest of the GB Boxing squad in Rio with a series of dazzling performances at the final continental qualifier - ironically, back in Baku.
GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken said: "Josh basically ticked a few boxes but he forgot to tick the diet box and he came back after Christmas well out of shape.
"I gave him a piece of my mind and in fairness he's worked his socks off over the last six months and I'm delighted for him. A kid of his talent shouldn't be messing it up through a bit of indiscipline, but he's turned it all around."
The Sunderland fighter will be part of a 12-strong British boxing squad in Rio, who are currently completing their preparations at the team's holding camp in Belo Horizonte.
Source: PA
