Croydon boxer Joshua Buatsi has already come a long way in the early years of his boxing career, but now he is aiming even higher.

Last year’s light-heavyweight English national champion recently returned from the Bocskai Memorial Tournament in Hungary with the gold medal in the 81kg weight series.

This adds to the gold medal he won at last year’s Golden Gong tournament in Macedonia, and Buatsi is delighted with the progress he has made so far.

“I was very happy with my performances in Hungary,” said Buatsi.

“I came across some very good boxers over there. 81 is quite a heavy weight and overall I was very pleased with how I came through.

“In the final I went at my opponent straight away. I didn’t give him any time to react.

“He had a good round two when I got caught in some silly mistakes and he had the home crowd behind him but I got stuck in and came back hard.”

Now the 22-year-old is training to be selected for team GB Boxing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, something he has long dreamt of being part of.

Buatsi faces competition from four other boxers and they will compete at upcoming World and European Championships for one spot in team GB Boxing at the Olympics.

“Right now the focus is on getting into the Great Britain boxing team to go to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016,” said Buatsi.

“It would be mean everything to me to represent Great Britain at the Olympics.

“Since I started boxing and became involved in the national set up, all I wanted to do was represent my country at international level.

“It’s going to be difficult because of how the qualification system works but I know if I work hard and stay focused I can make it,” said Buatsi.

But while he is concentrating on making it to Rio next year, Buatsi says his past achievements and plans for the future are all building blocks to one goal in his career.

“My dream is to become world champion,” he said.

“When you become a professional boxer, you want to become the best and that’s my ultimate goal in my career.”