BRADFORD boxer Daniel Hirst admitted he only had one thought on his mind as he took gold on his final British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) National Championships appearance in Sheffield.

Hirst missed out on the title two years ago but made sure not to make the same mistake twice on his trip to the Steel City.

The 21-year-old had already qualified for the final in the men's open 60-64kg category after making it through the preliminaries earlier in the month.

And while given a stern test by University of West England opponent Rahim Nanji at Ponds Forge, Hirst was handed a split-decision victory by the judges.

"The scores were quite one-sided but it didn't feel that way in the ring – I was dying out there, to be honest," said Hirst, a former member of Huddersfield Gladiators Boxing Club.

"I haven't properly trained for three by three-minute rounds. I've only been doing two-minute rounds, so it was just about getting in first time and doing the business.

"I fought at BUCS two years ago and made the final, so it's great to go one better this time. It's my final year of uni as well, so at least I've come away with a win now and a gold medal for once."

Hirst, who attends Manchester Met, was one of 6,000 students to descend on Sheffield for what is the UK's largest annual multi-sport event.

And while the fight was Hirst's last at the competition, he insists it will not be the final time he is seen in the ring.

He said: "I'm definitely going to carry on boxing once I graduate. I'm moving down to London and I'll take it from there.

"I could have done some things better – I kept dropping my hands and my jab was slower than his – but somehow I managed to overcome that. There's things to work on though."

* British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the UK, representing 170 institutions and facilitating 52 sport programmes. BUCS has been shortlisted for governing body of the year at the BT Sports Industry Awards 2015 and is supported by Deloitte – www.bucs.org.uk.