Heavyweight boxer Stjepan Vugdelija of Croatia was awarded the title of best boxer at the Zlatko Hrbic Tournament held in Zagreb, Croatia from March 3 until March 6, even though, overall, the Russian team claimed the most golds.
Altogether 61 athletes from 12 nations competed in the tournament: Russia, who claimed six gold medals, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Switzerland and host country Croatia.
Vugdelija (91kg) beat experienced Juan Oliva Aleman of Spain in the final, 5:1. The Croatian boxer proved that he has a good chance of taking part in the European Championships in June, which would be the first major event of his career.
Best technician of the tournament Russian Aleksey Kadochnikov won the middleweight class in Zagreb after beating Stefan Haertel of Germany in a close final, when just one point differentiated the winner from the runner-up, 2:1.
The tournament's best bout was the final between local boxer Hrvoje Sep and AIBA Youth World Championships silver medalist Enrico Kolling of Germany in the 81kg category. The talented young German won the match 3:1 and forecasted to his opponents that he will be a strong medal contender in the European Championships in Moscow in June.
World Championships bronze medalist Misha Aloyan followed a difficult path to the gold medal. In the end he won against David Berna of Hungary in the semifinal and against Francisco Torrijos of Spain in the final. Although the Spanish boxer had defeated two Russian boxers earlier in the tournament, Aloyan proved to be too strong for him.
Bantamweight Eduard Abzalimov, a World Championships silver medalist, won after beating European Union champion Hafid Bouji of Germany. Bouji gained a valuable victory in the semifinal, beating European Championships silver medalist Salomo N'Tuve of Sweden 4:2.
Borna Katalinic of Croatia, voted best Croatian boxer, and Kamil Szeremeta of Poland fought for the gold medal in the welterweight class final and the square contest finished as a draw of 2:2, with accepted scores at a draw of 6:6. The judges' final decision was 3:2 to Katalinic by preference after the bout.
Former European Junior Championships silver medalist Ljubomir Marjanovic of Serbia won the lightweight final and Russian National Championships silver medalist Radik Zagitov defeated AIBA World Ranking No. 2 Lukasz Maszczyk of Poland in the lowest weight category.
Erkan Teper of Germany won the super heavyweight class after beating talented 19-year-old reigning European youth champion Dino Mansour of Croatia, but the young local boxer is still considered to be a great Croatian hope for the future.
Young 18-year-old Gergo Bene of Hungary claimed a silver medal when he was defeated by Aleksandr Solyannikov of Russia, 10 years his senior, in the 64kg final. Still it was a good result for the young Hungarian since it was his first contest among the elite boxers.
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