AMIR Khan is fired up to strike for gold at the world junior boxing championships after winning a battle with his own bosses just to be there.

The Bolton-based lightweight had to convince England officials that he should be part of the six-strong squad taking part in the week-long tournament, which starts today in Jeju City, South Korea.

The England camp had lined up some warm-weather training in Cyprus this week for Khan (pictured), who will be Britain's only boxer at the Olympics in Athens in August.

But the 17-year-old insisted he wanted to have what will be his only crack at the world juniors, open to boxers aged under 19.

"Basically they want to wrap him up in cotton wool until the Olympics but we argued that was not the best preparation for Amir," said Mike Jelley, Khan's coach at Bury ABC.

"It was only at the 11th hour that they relented after we had a meeting with them in Sheffield and had to put our case in no uncertain terms.

"It's pointless for Amir to keep attending training sessions and just doing pad work with coaches when he can be taking part in real competitions, keeping ring-fit and working on his timing.

"He has always wanted to do the world juniors and will still have six weeks or so to prepare for the Olympics when he gets back."

Khan's younger brother Haroon was celebrating after winning the Four Nations Under-14s 36kgs final at Everton Park sports centre, Liverpool. Haroon stopped Scotland's Sean Miller in the second round after beating an Irish opponent on points in the semi-finals.

Ronnie Heffron (Boarshaw, Middleton) was the other local winner, outpointing Ireland's Ruairi Dalton 23-8 in the Under-15s 42kgs final.

He stopped his Scottish opponent in the first round of the semis.

Boarshaw teammate Joe Murray takes part in the Junior ABA Four Nations tournament in Cardiff next weekend. Tweet