Stoke Newington’s Lawrence Okolie admitted it felt good to be back after blowing the cobwebs away in spectacular fashion at the BUCS Gatorade National Championships.

It had been almost a year since Okolie’s last fight – with his record of 11 wins in 12 contests making it difficult to find an opponent.

But all that changed on Friday in Sheffield as the 21-year-old went up against University of Chester’s Elliot Dillon – and he showed no signs of ring rust, storming to victory to claim Under-91kg gold.

And now the former Stoke Newington Secondary School pupil is back in action, he has no intentions of slowing down any time soon.

“I’m happy with that,” said Okolie, who is a former London novices champion and now studies at the University of East London. “I’d like to thank all my coaches and my strength and conditioning coach.

“This is my first fight back in 11 months and I wasn’t really sure how my body would take a fight.

“They couldn’t get me fights because my record at the time was 12 fights and 11 wins, so it was hard to match me up with someone who has had that record.

“So I went on holiday and trained for a year. Now I’m back and it feels good. I’m happy to be university champion but now I want to go and win the ABA Championships, which are in April.”

n Gatorade is the exclusive nutrition and hydration partner to British Universities & Colleges Sports and headline sponsor of the BUCS Gatorade Nationals.

BUCS and Gatorade work together to educate student athletes on the importance of sports nutrition and hydration – visit: www.bucs.org.uk/gatorade