Buried beneath the hyperbolic avalanche of sporting  reportage from Chelsea to Cheltenham in the popular prints last week was the good news that British amateur boxing is back on the front foot after the seismic fall-out which followed Beijing. 

A Great Britain team returned from the Commonwealth Federation Championships in New Delhi with ten medals - four gold, one silver and five bronze - and this without several of their top men including Olympians Bradley Saunders and Khalid Yafai and European champion Luke Campbell.

Names like England’s Iain Waver, Scott Cardle, Simon Vallily, and Welshman Fred Evans, may be unfamiliar to all but the amateur game’s cognoscenti but they won gold in a highly- ompetitive tournament which looks promising  not only for the Commonwealth Games, also in New Delhi later this year, but the 2012 Olympics.

For the record the other medallists were England’s Frank Buglioni (silver) with bronze from Andrew Selby (Wales), Daniel Phillips (England), Callum Smith (England), Stephen Simmons (Scotland) and Frazer Clarke (England).

All are members of the elite squad assembled at the British Amateur Boxing Association’s state-of-the-art HQ at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield under the aegis of new performance director Rob McCracken.

The successes demonstrate the professional influence of McCracken, who says: "To deliver ten medals is a superb performance from a squad that was relatively inexperienced in terms of international competition. Both the results and the performances were excellent and showed the breadth and depth of talent we have throughout the GB squad. It is a very positive result for British amateur boxing."
 
Indeed, and it also shows there is new life in the ring after that Olympic exodus.

McCracken has not taken long to whip British amateur boxing into better shape. As I said at the time, he is an excellent appointment, having carved out a decent career himself as a former British and Com monwealth middleweight champion and world title contender who lost only the last two of his 35 fights. He is also coach to Britain’s most authentic world champion, Carl Froch, who holds the WBC super-middleweight title.

Like the popular Terry Edwards before him the 49-year-old Brummie is no mere bucket-and-sponge conditioner but a cerebral tactician who knows how to bring out the best in boxers even of limited ability. He has certainly lifted the spirit of his Sheffield squaddies after a relatively disappointing World Championships. Following the results in New Delhi  it seems there will be healthy competition for places in England’s Commonwealth Games team, the event from which they returned from Melbourne with five gold medals under Edwards four years ago.

McCracken will shortly be taking leave of absence to work with Froch as his puts the finishing touches to his preparations for his world title defence against Mikkel Kessler in Henning, Denmark, on 24 April, which is part of boxing’s Super Six Series.

McCracken’s association with Nottingham’s unbeaten Froch (aka "The Cobra") has been an added bonus for the boys in Sheffield, as Froch has been working out there with them, which has allowed McCracken to oversee both his responsibilities.



Meantime what of those Olympians who got away? All six who turned pro after Beijing remain undefeated and gold medallist James DeGale (pictured) has progressed swiftly to title-challenging status.

He will fight for the vacant WBA International super-middleweight title in his first 12-round bout at Upton Park on May 15 on the undercard of the Kevin Mitchell-Michael Katsidis WBO interim world lightweight title fight. It will be only the seventh pro fight for the charismatic Londoner (who has yet to proceed beyond four rounds) in what is regarded as a sort of ‘junior’ world title bout.

Stablemate Frankie Gavin, now boxing at welterweight after infamously failing to make the lightweight limit pre-Beijing, is equally ambitious, and so far has been the most impressive of Frank Warren’s Olympic trio. Also unbeaten in six fights he’ll have his first eight-rounder on the West Ham bill and wants a title fight this year. His ultimate aim to meet erstwhile amateur room-mate and spar-mate Amir Khan, now a world champion and chasing his American dream with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy outfit.  Light-middleweight Billy Joe Saunders (unbeaten in five) also appears at Upton Park after recovering from a hand injury.

Their  Beijing bronze medal buddies Tony Jeffries (light-heavyweight) and beanpole big-hitting heavyweight David Price are both making good progress under the promotional banner of Frank Maloney while featherweight Joe Murray steps up for his first eight-rounder after five unbeaten contests on Ricky Hatton’s promotion at  Dagenham, Essex this Friday (March 26).

And what of Edwards, the man who masterminded Britain’s best-ever Olympics before his shock dismissal? Well, he’s doing very nicely thank you, having collected a tidy bundle in damages from the Amateur Boxing Association and is now coaching pros and amateurs in an East London gym. He is also a consultant to Ghana may well be in their team’s corner in London.

So now the dust has settled after amateur boxing’s maelstroms it seems everyone is happy - or at least a little happier. Allied to those heartening results from India it gives British boxing a ring of confidence for 2012.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire, and is a former chairman of the Boxing Writers’ Club.