St Ives star Shona Whitwell sampled international success recently.

The 18 year-old captured a 60kg bronze medal after reaching the semi-final stages of the European Youth & Junior Championships in Turkey.

She was eventually beaten by home fighter Urguya Us - an outcome which left the boxer and her coach, father Steve Whitwell, with differing emotions.

Whitwell snr explained: “I’m delighted Shona came away with a medal after three tough fights in four days, but she is gutted to have ended up with bronze.

“She knows she didn’t quite get it right against the Turkish girl in the semi-final.

“She feels she let the fight slip and also realises that she would have had a great chance of gold if she had made the final.

“But it is another big accolade for Shona and caps a terrific 2016 in which she also won the national youth title.”

Whitwell launched her challenge with victory over Italian champion Concentta Marchese on a majority decision.

The opening two rounds were close affairs, but Whitwell upped the ante in the second half of the fight when displaying some fight footwork and landing a series of stinging uppercuts.

She attacked from the opening bell in her quarter-final showdown against Desislava Doycheva and only the bell saved her Bulgarian opponent from a first-round stoppage.

But it was only a matter of time before the fight was brought to an early finish and that came in the second round after Doycheva was given a third standing count.

Whitwell faced a mammoth semi-final task against a capable fighter in Us as well as a partisan Turkish crowd.

She set out to dominate from the start again, but Us made that impossible with a scrappy and unorthodox style. It made for an entertaining and close contest which went the way of the home fighter on a unanimous decision.

Cambridge Regional College student Whitwell now steps up into the senior ranks in January and her first big target will be ABA Championships glory in April.

Whitwell snr added: “Shona is in a great position to make the step up into the senior ranks.

“She has proved herself time and again as one of the best boxers around at junior and youth level.

“Hopefully she can continue her progress and challenge for a Great Britain call-up in the future.”