Beddington boxer Charlie Edwards claimed a stunning silver at the tournament that helped launch the career's of Mike Tyson and Oscar de la Hoya.

Competing at Finland’s Tammer tournament earlier this month, the 17-year-old’s first international adult competition, Edwards powered to the 49kg final before just falling short of gold.

He was the only British boxer to take home a medal and team boss Paul Walmsley described his performance as ‘near Olympic quality’.

It certainly shows his impressive progress and Edwards spoke excitedly about his prospects of competing in 2012.

He said: “I know the 2012 Olympics are the dream, but they are not that far from my reach.”

“I’m only going to get stronger and will be able to punch harder to stop people coming at me all the time.

“All the coaches from Great Britain and Ireland were raving about me and saying they were expecting to see a lot more from me on the international scene.”

Ninety-seven boxers from 22 countries descended on Tampere in Finland to take part in the 32nd staging of the illustrious competition.

It has been an important stepping stone for some of boxing’s great names and both Mike Tyson and Oscar de la Hoya have cut their teeth there on the way to superstardom.

Edwards showed his outstanding potential by dominating Germany’s Bilnd Badia 9-2 and then running the overwhelming favourite, Victorio Saludar of the Philippines, close in the final.

Saludar eventually won 7-3 but the score did not reflect how tight the bout was.

Going into the final round, the eventual champion was only ahead 4-3.

Edwards was certainly not too upset.

He said: “Everyone said it was really close and there was nothing in it. It could easily have been 7-5 or 7-6 at the end.”

“We were up against some of the best in the world. It was a great experience.”

It might be an experience he will be getting used to.