Gearing up for the 'biggest year of his career' aspiring Olympian Anthony Ogogo has landed a knockout blow with a gold medal secured from his first tournament of 2011.

Competing at the highly-competitive Strandja Cup in Bulgaria last week, Ogogo won four fights in successive days to clinch gold for the GB squad, who won seven medals at the event.

The Triple A Boxing Club middleweight overcame a contentious public warning to beat Bulgaria's Marian Monmvhev 3-2 in their 75kg final.

A delighted Ogogo said: 'This tournament has been held for 62 consecutive years, is one of the oldest boxing tournaments in Europe and one of the most prestigious multi-nations events. So to get a gold is fantastic.'

The tournament was previously seen as an Olympic qualifier. But with a change in qualification tournaments this year, the first Olympic qualifier will not be until the Men's World Championships are held in September – a tournament the Lowestoft boxer is preparing for to book his London 2012 spot.

Next month he will train with the Russian squad for two weeks at Sheffield, before fighting the current world number three from Russia. With multi-nation tournaments also planned, and the European championships in June – ahead of the worlds in September – it promises to be a busy time ahead.

'All the countries are preparing for the Olympics now by sending their number one fighters to all the tournaments, so it's tough,' he said.

Ogogo had to overcome the odds in the final to overcome home favourite Momchev after he was controversially deducted two points via a public warning for what the referee deemed a slap. However, the GB team and Ogogo were adamant they were clean landing left hands.

'Basically I should have won by far more than 3-2,' he added.