Last Sunday the 17th of May, amid the racket and ritual of schoolboy boxing, where nerves travel faster than punches and every parent in the hall seems to age ten years by the final bell, a young boxer from Derbyshire climbed through the ropes in Newcastle and came out as a national champion winning by way of an RSC a rare and distinguished  achievement.

The England Boxing National Schools Championships the most contested devision of the sport, for more than a century and watched closely because they so often reveal the next generation of elite talent. Former champions include names such as Daniel Dubois, Terri Harper, Adam Azim and Caroline Dubois.

The championships are fiercely contested because they occupy a unique place in British amateur boxing. For many young boxers, this is the first truly national stage, the first occasion where the noise feels different, the pressure sharpens and every contest carries genuine consequence. You do not drift accidentally into a Schools final. You arrive there through years of development, countless rounds of sparring and a gradual hardening of skill and temperament.

Ollie’s journey began at the age of eight. Since becoming eligible to compete at ten, he has steadily accumulated the experience required to operate at national level. Those inside boxing understand what that actually means. It means travelling up and down the country in pursuit of better sparring, better opposition and better education. It means learning how to remain composed in unfamiliar gyms against young boxers who have been taught very different styles.

Over the past year, the process became increasingly focused after his coach Phil Murray of Ripley School of Boxing set him a clear target: win the National Schools Championships.

Training two, three and sometimes four times each week, Ollie committed himself fully to that ambition. There were journeys to other clubs across the region and further afield to places such as Liverpool, where different gyms and different atmospheres provided another layer of education. Amateur boxing still functions partly as an old travelling fraternity. Good gyms seek each other out because serious boxers improve through being tested honestly.

Phil Murray deserves immense praise for the manner in which he has guided him. Good amateur coaches are builders of habits and standards. They concern themselves with timing, balance, discipline and composure. They teach young boxers how to think under pressure and how to retain their shape when contests become difficult.

Alongside Murray came the calibration and support of Glyn Turner, known better known throughout East Midlands boxing as “Ginner”, and Drew Douglass of Chesterfield ABC. Between them stands decades of accumulated boxing knowledge and the sort of commitment upon which the amateur code will always survives.

Last Sunday in Newcastle, all of that work found its reward beneath the bright lights of a national final.