Meet the Olympians - Bradley Saunders

Sedgefield is most famous for two things - being the former constituency of Tony Blair and its National Hunt racecourse. After the Beijing Olympics, it could be known for a boxer too.
Bradley Saunders is not the best-known name in the Great Britain team of eight, but he is could be one of the best hopes for a medal. Two years ago it did not look too rosy. He suffered a career-threatening hand injury and found himself in the queue behind Jamie Cox for the light-welterweight berth. When Cox won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Saunders's position seemed desperate. But Cox went professional and Saunders took his chance, winning a bronze medal at the world championships in Chicago, thus booking his place for Beijing.

Saunders, 22, suffered his left hand injury when catching a sparring partner on the hip. He suffered a "corkscrew fracture" of his knuckle and surgeons inserted two metal plates and four pins.

"I kept being told how serious the injury was and that I might not box again but to be honest, because I never considered being in the position I am in now, it wasn’t that difficult to take,” Saunders said. "Beijing was only a distant possibility and boxing had only ever really been a family thing for me. The Olympics were more of a dream for my mum and dad than for me.

"After I came back and kept winning and got myself into the position to qualify, everything changed. Now, if someone came and told me my career might be over, it would feel like the end of the world.”

It was in Chicago last autumn that everyone began to take notice of Saunders, but he revealed that the old injury almost ruined his chances. 

"I had an X-ray just before the World Championships and I could see the plate was bent and two of the pins were snapped," he said. "It was quite painful but it wasn’t causing my injury to get any worse, so we made the decision to keep the metal in as it was, and try to do well in the World Championships anyway.”

In Chicago, Saunders beat Javier Molina, an American, and Alexis Vastine, of France, on his way to a bronze medal, both of whom will be in Beijing. He was back in surgery after to have the bent metalwork removed and was the further sidelined by an infection. But returned to action in style, winning the gold medal at the Presidents Cup in Taiwan, winning four bouts (he will have to win five to take gold in the Olympics).

All four of the boxers he beat in Taiwan (from Cameroon, Thailand, Japan and Zambia) also qualified for Beijing. Manus Boonjumnong, the Thai he beat, is the defending Olympic champion, while Masatsugu Kawachi, the Japanese, was the other bronze medal winner in Chicago. All of which should give Saunders plenty of confidence.

"Boxing’s my life now. It’s almost a business thing. After I won the senior ABA Championships in 2006 I got a full-time deal with proper wages and it made me realise how important things are. Now I’ve got much more of a long-term goal. London’s a massive incentive but there’s also the possibility of turning professional if I do well in Beijing. After all I’ve been through, things are definitely looking up.”