They might have fallen just short of gold medals at the Women’s World Boxing Championships but Britain’s performance director Rob McCracken insists Lisa Whiteside and Sandy Ryan can leave South Korea with their heads held high.
Boxing in her first major tournament as a flyweight with British Olympic champion Nicola Adams recovering from injury, 29-year-old Whiteside put in a series of superb performances to make the final where she narrowly lost a split decision to American Marlen Esparaza.
And her achievement was matched by 21-year-old Ryan, who made the final of the light-welterweight category in her first major tournament as a senior, only losing out in the end to Anastasia Beliakova from Russia.
The silvers won by Whiteside and Ryan mean that women from the GB Boxing squad have won seven medals – one gold, five silver and a bronze – at the last three World Championships and McCracken was full of praise for the duo.
“To make the final of a tournament as difficult as the World Championships is an outstanding achievement by both Lisa and Sandy who have been absolutely superb this week and fully deserve their rewards after a series of excellent performances,” he said.
“They have shown that we are beginning to develop some real strength in depth in the women’s squad and have new boxers coming through to challenge the more established names.
“We have always known that Lisa was a top boxer because of her achievements as a featherweight [where she was a World Championship bronze medallist in 2012) but she has now shown she is a world class performer in the Olympic flyweight class.
“Sandy has performed absolutely superbly. She is a great talent and, like Lisa, has now shown that she can translate that into results at a major international tournament.
“The challenge now is for the pair of them to build on their achievements this week and continue to deliver medals at tournaments next year as we look towards Rio 2016.”
© Sportsbeat 2014