Baku European Games 2015: Nicola Adams targets Tokyo 2020 as Joe Joyce secures golden future

32-year-old flyweight announces plans to continue fighting as 6ft 6in Londoner takes super-heavyweight gold

Joe Joyce of Great Britain celebrates victory over Gasan Gimbatov of Russia in the Men's Boxing Super Heavyweight (+91kg) Final (Getty)

British boxing has received two pieces of good news. Joe Joyce won the super-heavyweight gold medal and Nicola Adams says she could continue fighting until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

The 32-year-old flyweight, who this week added a European Games gold medal to her Olympic and Commonwealth titles, has no plans to bring her pioneering career to an end. Adams is targeting gold at the Rio Olympics next summer and remains hungry for more success after that.

She will be 36 in Tokyo but Great Britain boxing performance director Rob McCracken has backed her to continue fighting for “as long as she wants to”.

“Rob wants me to stay on until Tokyo, so who knows?” said Adams. “Floyd Mayweather is 38 and Carl Froch is 37. I will go on as long as I have the love for boxing. I will not be going as long as Bernard Hopkins, who is 50, but boxing is one of those sports that is about technique as well.

“You can have someone younger, faster, but if you have got that experience and that ringcraft you can do anything in that ring.”

Adams recovered from shoulder surgery in the autumn to win gold here and her immediate ambition is to win a first world title at the World Championships in Kazakhstan in February. “The journey does not stop here,” said Adams.

McCracken added: “I think she will box as long as she wants to do and it is how she feels after Rio. She is still young, 40 today is like 30 used to be.

“It is just whether she is motivated to do it and whether she wants to do it. She can become a two-time Olympic champion and, if she achieves that in Brazil, it will be up to Nicola.”

Joyce took the super-heavyweight title by beating Gasan Gimbatov on points in the final and celebrated with a backflip in the ring.

The 29-year-old Londoner, who is 6ft 6in and 17 stone, said: “I did a bit of cheerleading when I was at university, the training was enjoyable but it was always going to be boxing for me.”

Joyce caught Gimbatov with some big shots and the Russian was taken to hospital after the fight. His success in Baku has secured Joyce a place at the World Championships, where he will have the chance to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Elsewhere, Josh Kelly had to settle for a bronze medal in the welterweight division after losing his semi-final against Azerbaijan’s Parviz Baghirov.

Ireland’s Katie Taylor goes for a gold medal in the lightweight division today when she fights Estelle Mossely of France.

Baku hosted the inaugural European Games