THE speed of Megan Gordon’s transition from the junior to the senior ranks has surprised even herself.

The boxer made history last summer when she became the first female to represent Scotland in any Commonwealth Games event when she was selected for Team Scotland for last summer’s Youth Games in the Bahamas. She won bronze and used her result as a platform to push on, with her improvement so rapid that the 18-year-old from Elgin will make her second Commonwealth Games appearance in the space of a year, this time at the senior Games, when she represents Scotland at Gold Coast 2018 next month.

But her speedy improvement has not dulled her ambition. Bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games was an admirable achievement but she wants to better that in Gold Coast.

“I definitely didn’t expect the transition to be so quick, especially because I broke my hand in Poland [last September],” she said. “So I didn’t have high hopes [for selection] because when you’ve just had nine weeks out, it’s like starting all over again.

“But after all the training I feel so ready for Gold Coast. I’m excited for the opportunity to bring back another medal. I got a bronze in the youth games, so I want to change the colour and get gold this time.”

Gordon, who is training full-time in the lead-up to the Games, has not made things easy for herself though. She is going down a weight category to -48kgs for the Games and of all the hardships that being an elite-level boxer bring, the strict diet is one of the toughest. Especially for someone who loves peanut butter to the extent that Gordon does. “The peanut butter has been shoved to the back of the cupboard although I do put the occasional spoon in my porridge,” she admits. “And my social media is just full of food pages.

“But I started the diet after Christmas and my weight is going down nicely every day. I feel healthy and I feel fit and I do feel better at 48kgs.”

If it weren’t for Gordon’s persistence, the likelihood is that she would never have set foot in a boxing ring. Her father, who is a boxing coach, was far from keen for his daughter to put on a pair of boxing gloves but her constant cajoling paid off and finally, he relented.

“Every year, Elgin Boxing Club have a home show - I went to watch it and there was a young boy boxing who would have been about my age and I was like, I could do that," she recalls. "So I said to my mum who was next to me and she said OK. It was out the blue because I wasn’t sporty.

"Then when I got home I asked my dad if I could start boxing. He said no and that was it. But I kept pestering and pestering.

"Finally I got my way and he said if I trained every day with him for three months I could start and it's now been six years.”

Gordon is now a three-time Scottish champion and she could not have chosen a better time to come into the sport. Women’s boxing is on an upward trajectory but there is still a way to go before anything approaching equality is reached. But with female boxing becoming more mainstream, it is becoming more accepted and Gordon is thrilled to be part of the group who are changing perceptions of the sport.

“When I was younger, I thought of female boxers as being very butch," she said. "Whereas I think showing that you can have the best of both is the good.

"Scotland is doing so much more for the females who are boxing and there are more opportunities for the young girls.

"I found it quite tough getting fights and I ended up doing my first exhibition against a girl who weighed more than my dad! She came in the scales at 75 kilos and I was 48 and before it I was so nervous!

"When I was getting into the sport, I was constantly having to travel to Ireland and England just to get bouts whereas now you can get them locally, which is so much better."