Leigh Park fighter Jack Carter's 'brilliant' national championship boxing achievement

But head coach Daron Wiseman says the Leigh Park fighter should take pride from his 'brilliant' achievement of finishing third in the country.

Carter, 16, suffered a split decision defeat to Barnard Castle Amateur Boxing Club's George Peacock in the National Junior Championships under-60kg semi-final in Hereford last weekend.

It was a blow for the Team Wiseman boxer, who was hoping his hard training would pay off and land him a national title.

But coach Wiseman insisted his protege could not have given anymore in his last-four bout with Peacock - and he has no doubt he'll bounce back from his minor setback.

‘He boxed really good in truth, it was just his opponent was just so tall and so long,’ Wiseman reflected.

‘We watched a few videos on him (George) and we thought we had figured him out, but actually getting in and doing it against someone so awkward is a different story.

‘It was a close fight, I had my fingers crossed at the end, I was hoping a little bit of luck would go our way because Jack was the aggressor and on the front foot. But then I was thinking the other boy scored the cleaner shots so I wasn’t sure.

‘We’re happy, Jack was alright with it, he was happy with his performance and he couldn’t have done anymore - in training and in the fight - he couldn’t have done anymore.

‘We were gutted but we were happy with his performance. Jack will be back, he was back last year just before the pandemic, he’ll be back there again.’

But Wiseman says his fighter should still take huge pride from what he managed to achieve in a stacked national competition.

He added: 'There are probably 150 boxers who entered those Junior ABAs so to come third and walk away with a bronze medal is brilliant, really.’