Forward Robert Dowd says winning the gold medal in Belfast is the best trophy success of his career as Great Britain gained promotion to the World Championship Division 1 Group A.

Dowd started off the goalscoring before Brendan Brooks and two from Matthew Myers saw GB beat Japan 4-0 in Belfast’s SSE Arena.

“What can I say? This is fantastic – what a way to end the season,” said Dowd.

“I have high points in my career but winning the gold for my country might just take the biscuit for me.

“We are such a tightly-knit group and that saw us through the week.

“We were so unlucky the last two years and that really hurt us. It hurt, it really hurt and all summer it hurt.

“So to win it is going to make this summer so much sweeter.”