Carlisle boxer Ike Ogbo’s dream of fighting for Great Britain has taken another major step forward.

The talented super-heavyweight – who is also an A&E doctor at the Cumberland Infirmary – has been named in GB Boxing’s emerging talent programme.

Ogbo, from Border City Amateur Boxing Club, is among 12 boxers promoted to the GB reckoning after coming through the England Talent Pathway.

And he is one of three who will join the Emerging Talent Programme, which runs parallel to Team GB's World Class Programme.

It sees Ogbo effectively in GB's reserve squad, and the Carlisle boxer will now train regularly with the squad in his bid to attain full-time status in the squad.

It follows a series of assessments by top national coaches since Ogbo won the England National Amateur Super-Heavyweight title last year.

Ogbo has impressed the talent spotters and will now push on with the aim of representing his country.

“We would like to congratulate all these boxers on winning a GB place, where they can now look forward to competing for the right to appear at the Olympics and other World and European level competitions,” said England Boxing’s chief executive officer Jerome Pels.

“To have so many boxers who are deemed ready to make that next step towards the very Elite end of our sports speaks volumes of the England Talent Pathway, not only in terms of the England coaching set-up that helps develop them, but also the club system at grass roots level that produces and nurtures them in the first place.”

Border City ABC said everyone at the club was “over the moon for the big man”.

They paid tribute to Ogbo’s “dedication and attitude towards the sport” and said it was a major tribute to all the hard work that goes in at the club.

Other fighters joining the GB set-up after coming through the England Talent Pathway are Savannah Stubley (Empire School of Boxing), Emily Whitworth (The People’s Gym), Olivia Holmes (Rotunda) and Sameenah Toussaint (New King’s), Ellis Trowbridge (Hoddesdon), Owen Ketley (Lionheart), Jack Dryden (Birtley), Billy Adams (Dagenham), Ibraheem Sulaimaan (Eastside), Patris Mughalzai (Powerday Hooks), Ellis Price (Hunslet) and Owen Rees (Birtley), Patrick Hewitt (Leigh) and Megan Morris (St Ives).

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