Olympic gold medal hopeful Shelley Watts will make an official special appearance in Port Macquarie this weekend.
As part of their ‘Local Heroes’ campaign, Optus will turn their Port Macquarie store into the Shelley Watts store for the duration of the Rio Olympics.
“Originally the store was going to be in Sydney, but I explained to the campaign organisers that while I train in Sydney, I’m actually from Laurieton and the closest Optus store is in Port Macquarie,” Watts said.
“I wanted the attention to be as close to home as possible.”
On Saturday June 11 Watts will be at the Optus store in Port Macquarie from 12-1pm giving away supporter packs, posing for photos with fans and signing autographs. The store is located on Horton Street at the front of Peachtree Arcade.
Optus Perks are also up for grabs including movie passes and a whole host of other freebies.
The community is invited to come along to the Optus store to farewell the local athlete.
The proudly-Laurieton lass is on the countdown to the Rio Olympics which kicks off on August 5.
“Training is going really well. I had a couple of niggling injuries but they’re gone,” she said.
Training is going really well. I had a couple of niggling injuries but they’re gone, I’ve now just got to make every training session count.
- Shelley Watts on her Olympic preparations
Watts has her sights set on breaking Australia’s Olympic boxing drought, which will mean potentially coming face-to-face with world light weight champion and defending Olympic gold medalist Katie Taylor of Ireland.
Watts has never faced Taylor who is known as the face of women’s boxing thanks to her more than ten-year reign at the top.
At the world championships in 2014, Watts was on track to fight Taylor. Watts was defeated in the quarter finals and said, at the time, she was probably guilty of looking too far ahead.
"When the time comes, I'd love nothing more than to step into the ring with Katie. To be the best you have to fight the best,” Watts said in a previous interview.
In the next couple of weeks Watts will head to training camps in Brisbane, then Colorado Springs in the US then it’s on to Rio. Shelley’s Olympic competition begins August 12 at the Riocentro Pavilion, just two days after her 29th birthday.
Kate Dwyer
Journo. Wife. Mother of three.
Journo. Wife. Mother of three.
