FORMER Hermitage Academy pupil Hannah Rankin is looking forward to battling with a very different type of opponent when she returns home to Luss after making Scottish boxing history.

The 27-year-old took a unanimous points victory to secure the WBC silver super-middleweight championship against Finland’s Sanna Turunen on Saturday, becoming the first Scottish female boxer to win a professional title.

Among those in the audience at the Lagoon Centre in Paisley was Hannah’s dad Andrew, who runs the family farm at Edentaggart in Glen Luss – and who has a very different job in mind for his daughter over the next few weeks.

“He wants me back on the farm,” Hannah told the Advertiser.

“It’s sheep-shearing season and he’s determined that me and my sisters will come home to help.

“I’ve been going non-stop, training and fighting, for about 14 months since turning professional, so I’m due a break, but my dad wants to put me to work.”

Rankin dominated a tough 10-round bout against her Finnish opponent before the three fight judges all gave her a comprehensive victory on points, by margins of 100-90, 99-91 and 100-91.

She was dealt a blow in the run-up to the fight when a medical issue forced her scheduled opponent, Uruguay’s Katie Alvarino, to withdraw.

That forced Rankin to move up a weight class in order to secure the bout with Turunen, who was unbeaten in her five pro fights before Saturday’s contest.

But having already been forced to put her title bid on hold once the classically-trained bassoonist moved up to the super-middleweight division so as to not let her chance slip for a second time

Speaking shortly after teaching an early-morning music theory class to a group of young students, Rankin said: “It still hasn’t totally sunk in.

“I gave up a bit of a weight advantage because of the change to a different weight class, and it meant that I couldn’t move my opponent around as much as I’d have liked to.

“But I was quicker than her, and that speed difference helped a lot in the ring.

“It was a really good fight – I’m really glad it went the distance and that I now have a full, hard, 10-round fight under my belt against a really tough opponent.

“Hopefully that might put me in the mix for a world title fight in the future.”