With the Olympics having started this past weekend, eagle-eyed Maxonians may have noticed there are athletes from our town competing.

There are two Macclesfield Olympians competing, and the great news is that they are in action again today.

First up is Karriss Artingstall, who has been given time off her career in the army to focus on her flourishing featherweight boxing career.

The 26-year-old who has won bronze at the Boxing World Championships and Silver at the European Championships in her weightclass, will hope to go one better in Tokyo.

Despite it being her first competitive matches since she last took a medal in Russia's European Championships in 2019, she has battled through to Round of 16 in her first ever Olympics.

She easily swept over Botswanan boxer Keamogetse Sadie Kenosi.

Karriss beat the 24-year-old African fighter 5-0.

The Macc-born boxer will take on Brazilian Jucielen Romeu at 11:39 today (19:39 Japanese time).

advertisement

Karriss is on Twitter and Instagram.

She is an army gunner for the British Army's First Royal Artillery.

Karriss has previously represented the British Army's boxing team.

Should she take a medal in the Women's Feather (54-57kg), Karriss will be the first Olympian from our town to bag an Olympic Medal since Sir Ben Ainslie ended his five medal run in London 2012.

Before that, Dutch rower Bobbie van de Graaf was the most recent person born in Macc to get an Olympic medal.

Bobbie won a bronze in the coxed four rowing the last time Tokyo hosted the games, in 1964.

Speaking of Sir Ben Ainslie, there is also a Macclesfield sailor who hopes to follow in the footsteps of sports most successful competitor.

Laser sailor Elliot Hanson has raced on Japanese shores before, taking gold on the tides of the 2018 World Cup Series Enoshima.

advertisement

He has even received advice from Sir Ben himself, to hopefully continue Macclesfield's lineage of successful Olympic sailors.

Elliot bagged the 2020 Laser class European Championship, and hopes to continue his winning streak. The medal race is on August 1, but you can catch him on telly today and tomorrow.

Born in Macclesfield in 1994, the six-foot-tall athlete is representing Macclesfield in the Laser Sailing.

His grandparents began his love for sailing on holiday in Wales.

Elliott Hanson competed in the first round of Sailing yesterday at Kamakura, Japan. The Maxonian came in 5th, with more qualifying races to come over the next two days.

Elliot is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can follow coverage on the BBC and Eurosport online platforms.

Team GB currently have three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze.

advertisement

They sit fourth in the medal table. None of the medal winners are currently from Cheshire.

Macclesfield Nub News wishes the best of luck to competing athletes from our town.

Last week, former England cricketer Monty Panesar produced this article for Nub News, on why he thinks the Olympics are right to go ahead amidst the pandemic.

Please sign up for our Friday weekly newsletter containing each week's top 10 Macclesfield news stories. 350 of you have signed up already.

Simply enter your email address into the shaded box below.

You can follow Macc's online newspaper on your favourite social media platform.

You can find us on Facebook or Twitter.