Boxer Stephanie Kernachan out of retirement and eyeing Commonwealth Games history

Stephanie Kernachan is realising her Commonwealth Games goal at the fourth time of asking.

Originally from Castlemilk but now fighting out of Falkirk’s Phoenix Club, the boxer had hoped to compete at the 2014 Games, the last time it was staged in Glasgow. Unfortunately for Kernachan and her contemporaries, Scotland did not enter any female boxers in 2014, the first time women’s boxing was staged at the Commonwealths.

Scotland did have a two-strong female cohort in 2018 but no bantamweights, the division at which Kernachan fights. And by 2022 in Birmingham, she had hung up her gloves.

Stephanie Kernachan trains in Falkirk under the watchful eye of former undisputed world champion and Commonwealth Games baton bearer Josh Taylor. | Getty Images for King's Baton Re

The 33-year-old was enticed out of retirement later that year, got back up to speed and suddenly her dream of competing at a home Commonwealth Games was back on, 12 years after the initial ambition.

“My coach talked me into coming back into boxing, so I made a comeback in 2022, won my national championships, was performing really, really well, managed to get back into the Scotland squad, and then I got selected for the World Championships in Liverpool just at the end of last year, and since then it's been the Commonwealth Games as a target,” she explained.

Inspired by Nicola Adams

“That's one thing I've always been wanting to do, the Commonwealth Games, but it was only after I'd gone to the Worlds, and I thought, ‘you know what, let's go for it. Let's try everything I've got. Let's get through these selections while I'm performing at my best’. And here I am. I'm selected, and I'm going to a home city Games as well.”

Glasgow stepped into host this year’s Commonwealth Games when the Australian state of Victoria withdrew due to spiralling costs. It was the extra spur Kernachan needed after missing out last time her home city hosted. Her initial ambition of fighting in 2014 was inspired by events of two years earlier.

“When women's boxing first got introduced into the Olympics, it was 2012, and it was Nicola Adams, and she was from London, and it was in London, and she went and won a gold. By 2014, I was like, ‘oh, it's in Glasgow, I'm from Glasgow, so maybe it's meant to be’, but then it didn't happen.

“So when Victoria withdrew, and then Glasgow took it up again, I went, ‘this is it, it's meant to be, this is my time, I’m from Glasgow, it's in Glasgow, let's go’.”

Stephanie Kernachan will box for Team Scotland at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. | Craig Watson

She was 21 in 2014 and 33 now but feels in shape of her life.

“The thing is, being an older athlete, I actually feel at my fittest, my strongest, my fastest. I feel much, much better as a mature woman, rather than when I was, like, 21. And I think the experience in all the international tournaments has done me really, really well, so here I am, my first Games, and I'm feeling the best I've ever felt.”

Hill running in Gran Canaria followed by a sparring camp in Belfast have helped her get up to speed, but she’s not peaked yet.

“Aye, well, there's still room for a bit more,” she said. “Not quite there yet. You want to peak at the right time. So not the fittest yet, but I will be when the time hits. I’ll be ready to go.”

It may be her first Commonwealth Games but Kernachan is not short on experience. A trailblazer for her sport, she is a six-time Scottish champion, Scotland’s first female British champion and the first woman to box for Scotland at the elite women’s World Championships.

A stablemate of Charlie ‘the Mailman’ Flynn

A likeable chatterbox, she has been working under the auspices of trainer Stevie Morrison in Falkirk for the last few years. Before that, she had a spell in Belfast and also in Motherwell where she trained at Newarthill alongside Charlie Flynn, a Commonwealth Games star in 2014. The Mailman, as he was known - he always delivered - won gold in the lightweight division and was as quick with memorable quotes as he was in the ring. Kernachan is cut from the same cloth.

“The funny thing is, Charlie was a really quiet boy in the gym,” she said. “He came in, he got on with his training, and then that was him. Then you saw his real side coming out, and he was brilliant, going out and getting the gold.

“So, aye, to see that, and have that inspiration.... I've been in the Scotland squad all those years, training alongside all the 2014 athletes, training alongside all the 2018 athletes, and then, I was in the team just before 2022. So all those athletes were all gearing up, getting ready for the Games and to see all those teams all going, and medaling, and performing, and then, you know, I've just missed out. But now I'm in with this new squad, it's a new, young squad, and I finally got there, so, aye, absolutely brilliant.”

Team Scotland are sending five women boxers to Glasgow 2026, their largest ever female representation in the sport at a Commonwealth Games, with Kernachan joined by Niamh Mitchell, Caitlin Rainey, Brooke Neely and Lara Brown.

Team Scotland's Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games boxing squad: Caitlin Rainey, Brooke Neely, Lara Brown, Stephanie Kernachan, Niamh Mitchell, Nicolas Devlin, Alan Perrie, Sonny Kerr, Robert McNulty, Leo Church, Aaron Cullen. | Craig Watson

Podium places are the target, something no Scottish female boxer had achieved before at the Games but Kernachan is confident history can be made this summer.

“All of us are saying ‘who's going to get it first?’ and to be honest, all the lassies are brilliant. We're all putting in the effort, we're performing internationally and I think we're all in for a chance at a medal, really, if we all hit it right, and we get the right draw. I think, definitely, you'll be seeing us on the podium. And it might not even just be the first medal, it'll be the first medals!”