LYDNEY’S Haydon Young came away from the GB School Three Nations championship with a gold medal – after a late call-up by England.

The 13-year-old got his chance after Paddy McDonagh – who beat the Forester in the national schools’ final – had to pull out through injury.

The late call-up meant a lot of last-minute work to enable Haydon to make the 50kg weight category, said Lydney coach Bryan Higgs.

Bryan explained: “Haydon weighed on Thursday and was 1.3kg over weight so he did a training session.

He then travelled to Sheffield on Friday morning and weighed 50.4kg.

“Then he travelled with the England team by coach to Dundee and was 50kg on Saturday morning.

Later that day he faced Campbell Sutherland of Scotland, winning a place in the final on a 4-1 split decision.

On Sunday he fought another Scot, Sonny Gow, in the final and won by the same margin.

Coach Higgs says the young boxer now has a good chance of being picked for the European championships.

Haydon was one of 11 of England’s 12 boxers who came away from the championships with a medal.

England development coach Amanda Coulson was delighted with the squad’s performance.

She told the England Boxing website: “After a rocky start with a handful of close defeats on the scorecards in the first half of the semi -final contests on Saturday, Team England were able to show the resilience required to rise above the results and continue to put in some top class performances, accumulating 13 finalists from the team of 18 –and we were a tad unlucky not to have secured more.

“The Scottish and Welsh boxers created some top class, closely-contested bouts, which kept our Young Lions switched on throughout until the final bell.

“Day two was magical, with every boxer and coach putting together some masterclass performances to claim 11 gold and a silver, to go along with the bronze medals from the semi-finals day, plus a silver from a straight final.

“It was a memorable occasion for 18 school boxers to don the Three Lions vest and represent their country for the first time.

“No doubt this will be the start of an exciting future international career for some of this team.

“My extended praise goes to all the clubs of these young boxers, who have developed their charges to this high standard. The future looks bright.”