McGrail claims gold as Britain's boxers win seven medals

McGrail was the pick of the fighters as his victory over Ukrainian Mykola Butsenko in the 56kg final earned him a gold medal.

McGrail was forced to win his gold the hard way though as he was deducted a point in the second round by Irish referee Sadie Duffy for ‘failing to keep his head up.'

But the Liverpool boxer maintained his composure in a dominant final round to take gold on a close decision.

Cuban judge Alejandro Barrientos and Korean counterpart Kim Jong Jin both ruled in favour of the home fighter 29-27.

But Italian Maria Rizzando, Turk Yasar Cinar and Bulgarian Pavel Pavlov all returned 28-28 cards - with every official ruling in favour of the Englishman on countback.

"I think he was the much better boxer throughout the contest," said former world champion Richie Woodhall.

"There was only one winner and thankfully those boxers got it right.

"Peter McGrail is a worthy European champion. Great, great performance. I don't agree with the referee's decision but Peter should be the winner regardless."

Britain picked up six more medals on Saturday – all silver – to take their total to eight for the Championship.

The tally was the highest of any nation competing in Ukraine and beats their previous best of six in Bulgaria in 2015.

Russia's Vasilii Egorov beat England's Galal Yafai (46-49kg), before Daniel Panev Asenov of Bulgaria beat Niall Farrell (52kg).

After McGrail's victory, Luke McCormack (64kg) was beaten by Armenian Hovhannes Bachkov, Abbas Baraou of Germany beat Pat McCormack (69kg), Cheavon Clarke (91kg) lost to Russia's Evgeny Tishchenko and FrazerEdward Clarke (+91kg) was outpointed by another Russian, Viktor Vykhryst.

Many of the fighters competing in Ukraine are part of the new GB Boxing squad, which has changed significantly in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as many athletes who competed at Rio 2016 have either turned professional or are set to do so.

Sportsbeat 2017