BIRTLEY boxer Pat McCormack underlined his status as a potential star of next summer’s Olympic Games as he claimed a silver medal at the European Championships in Bulgaria.

McCormack was in superb form as he cruised through both the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the light-welterweight competition to set up a final with Russian Vitaly Dunaytsev.

He landed a series of clean shots in the final, but his technical style did not seem to go down well with the judges, who preferred the more rugged approach of Dunaystev.

McCormack was beaten on all three judges’ cards, but his silver medal still secures him a place at October’s World Championships in Doha, which is a qualification event for next year’s Olympics in Rio.

The 20-year-old’s second place helped Britain claim a record six medals at the Europeans, with Welshman Joe Cordina leading the way as he won gold at lightweight.

Cordina beat Georgian Otar Eranosyan in his final, and Britain’s final haul of one gold, four silver and a bronze represented the best performance by a team from the home nations in the 90-year history of the European Championships.

“To bring seven boxers to a tournament as difficult as the European Championships and leave with six medals, with five boxers making the final, is a fantastic achievement,” said GB Boxing performance director Rob McCracken.

“This is a very talented, yet still relatively inexperienced group of boxers, so to perform so well at a tournament of this stature and now have eight boxers going to the World Championships, which is an Olympic qualifier, is a great achievement and augurs very well for the future.”