The most talented Lithuanian boxers Edgaras Skurdelis, Evaldas Petrauskas and Ricardas Kuncaitis won their weight classes at the 5th Danas Pozniakas Youth Memorial Tournament which was held in Vilnius, Lithuania last week.
Altogether 70 boxers from 14 nations competed in the tournament. Belarus, France, Ukraine, Russia, Ireland, Armenia, Poland, Israel, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Latvia and host country Lithuania were joined by the Seychelles from the African Boxing Confederation, a rare occurrence for a European youth tournament.
Danas Pozniakas, for whom the tournament was named, was a Lithuanian-born boxer who competed for the Soviet Union. He won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in the light heavyweight class and claimed three gold medals in the European Championships. In 2005 he died in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the Youth Tournament now takes place.
European Youth and European Junior champion 18-year-old Petrauskas of Lithuania defeated his old and experienced rival Eduards Gutmans of Latvia in the lightweight final. It was a great success for the Lithuanian boxer because he lost to Philip Nsingi of Germany at the Brandenburg Youth Tournament in February. Petrauskas is one of Lithuania's biggest talents and he has a good chance of qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games in April at the AIBA Youth World Championships.
Skurdelis, a World Junior Championships quarterfinalist, defended his title in the Danas Pozniakas Tournament after beating his powerful teammate Tautvydas Statkevicius in the hectic featherweight final where Skurdelis won 3:2. The Lithuanian head coach is lucky to have two world class boxers competing in the 57kg category.
Local fighter Kuncaitis, who was a World Junior Championships silver medalist, easily won the gold in the 64kg category against European Junior Championships bronze medalist Mantas Barauskas of Lithuania when his older rival abandoned the contest in the first round.
One of the biggest stars of the tournament was European Youth Championships bronze medalist, super heavyweight boxer Tony Yoka of France. However, he only made it to third place after being defeated by the eventual winner Vladislav Kuptsov of Belarus in the semifinal.
Reigning Junior World Champion 17-year-old Ivan Baranchik of Belarus defeated Hovhannes Bachkov of Armenia in the bantamweight final. Baranchik gives high hopes to Belarus as his coach is expecting him to win at least one medal at the AIBA Youth World Championships.
Farhaad Saad of France won the middleweight, John Tighe of Ireland finished in first place in the light heavyweight after beating Nikita Stepanovs of Latvia by points and Leonid Charnabayev of Belarus claimed the gold medal among the heavyweight boxers.
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