Adams' joy at winning silver

10:30pm Sunday 30th November 2008

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Nicola Adams’ dream of becoming England’s first women’s world amateur boxing champion ended when she was narrowly beaten in the bantamweight (54kg) final in Ningbo, China.

The 26-year-old Bradford College student and member of Bradford Police and College Academy Boxing Club, beat four tough opponents to advance to the last day but she had to settle for the silver medal after a narrow 10-6 loss to experienced world number one Karolina Michalczuk.

Adams made a blistering start, taking a 4-1 lead, but the two-time EU Champion quickly pegged it back to 4-4 at the end of the first round before pulling clear in the second half of the fight.

Adams’ success in China bodes well for her chances of winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

“I’m ecstatic about it and I really can hardly believe it’s happening,” said Adams.

“I’ve improved so much recently and so much of it is down to the training camps I’ve been on in other gyms and in Ireland, where training with Katie (Taylor, Ireland’s reigning world lightweight champion) and her team-mates has helped me enormously.

“This is a great way of paying back my mum, who was watching my bout on the internet and rang me as soon as it had finished, for all the driving and money she’s helped with to get me this far.”

Adams breezed past Lyudmyla Hrytsay of the Ukraine 8-1 in the opening round before improving again to beat Russian Liudmila Bondarenko 11-2.

In the quarter-final, Adams edged past her old rival Lorna Weaver of France 7-2 to guarantee a place on the podium.

She overwhelmed American opponent Cynthia Moreno 10-0 in the semi-final to make her record going into Saturday’s final 36 points for and just five against.

In the past year, Adams – who began boxing when she was 12 – made history by becoming the first woman to secure a medal at a major championship when she defeated Russian world champion Ochigava Sofya.

In December 2007 she picked up the Best International Performance by a Female Boxer prize at the ABAE annual awards. She was also highly commended as Sports Woman of the Year at the 2007 Leeds Sports Awards.