At just 22 years old and already named world champion, Sergey Vodopyanov of Russia (57kg) says he can reclaim his throne at the European Championships which will be held in Moscow, Russia in June. He stands a very good chance because this time his biggest opponent Vasyl Lomachenko will be competing in the lightweight category.
Sergey Vodopyanov was born in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan on September 20, 1987, but his parents went to Russia when he was a child. He has been boxing and training since 2001 under Oleg Menshikov's supervision. But besides sports, he likes to read books and play the guitar.
Vodopyanov's first international boxing events were the Battle of Stalingrad Junior Tournament and the Stanislav Sorokin Junior Memorial Tournament, both held in Russia in 2004. He claimed a gold medal in both tournaments and was selected into the Russian junior squad.
At 165cm tall, Vodopyanov won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Jeju, South Korea in 2004 where he lost to Pal Bedak of Hungary in the light flyweight class final, but he went on to win the category at the European Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia a year later. Although this made him one of the favourites at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Agadir, Morocco, he made an early exit against superstar Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine in the flyweight class.
The 2007 Russian National Championships were better for Vodopyanov where he clinched the gold in bantamweight. Then he reached the final in the 2007 AIBA World Championships after beating McJoe Arroyo of Puerto Rico and went on to defeat Enkhbat Badar-Uugan of Mongolia in a close bout, winning 16:14.
During the Beijing Olympic Games, Akhil Kumar of India surprised everyone when he defeated Vodopyanov in the second preliminary round. The final score was 9:9, but Kumar won the contest by accepted points and Vodopyanov missed out on the chance of earning himself an Olympic medal. He then went up a weight category into featherweight after another loss in the AIBA World Cup where he was defeated by Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova 15:4 in the semifinal in Moscow, Russia.
In the 2009 AIBA World Championships, Vodopyanov took a silver medal after losing to Lomachenko for the second time in his career, but he defended his title in the Russian National Championships where he won against Ruslan Kamilov, 14:4.
Vodopyanov's first challenge this year was the Bocskai Memorial Tournament, which was held in Hungary's second biggest city, Debrecen last week. There, he showed what he was made of and won himself the gold in the 57kg weight category, showing his fans that they have much to look forward to at the European Championships.
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