News

Russian Boxers Strike Gold Seven Times on Home Soil

14.06.2010

The 64kg medalists pose on the podium at the European Men's
Championships 2010 in Moscow. (Sandor Makocsai)

The Russian boxing team dominated the final round of the European Men's Elite Championships Saturday, collecting seven gold medals to highlight a historic day. World Championships bronze medalist Misha Aloyan took home Russia's first title of the tournament, defeating Beijing Olympian and Aloyan's biggest rival, Khalid Saeed Yafai of England in the flyweight final.

Altogether 230 athletes from 41 European nations took part at the championships where Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and Hungary competed with full 11-member teams, while Turkey, Germany and Azerbaijan entered 10 boxers each in the event. Surprisingly the Georgian squad did not travel to Moscow and nor did the following members of the European Confederation: Cyprus, Belgium, Malta, Andorra, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino and Iceland.

The opening finals bout featured the light flyweight event where Beijing Olympic Games bronze medalist Patrick Barnes of Ireland defeated reigning European Youth Champion Elvin Mamishzade of Azerbaijan, 4:1.This year, the nine-member Irish squad recorded 20 wins out of the 28 total contests in Moscow.

European Championships bronze medalist Denis Makarov of Germany won the biggest fight of his career in the quarterfinals where he eliminated former World Champion Sergey Vodopyanov of Russia in the home ring. To conclude his outstanding showing, Makarov upset Commonwealth Championships winner Iain Weaver of England by 7:2 in the featherweight final.

Former World Champion Albert Selimov celebrated Russia's third gold medal after beating Liverpool-based Thomas Stalker of England. Russia was equally successful in the 54kg division as bantamweight boxer Eduard Abzalimov knocked off Georgiy Chygayev of Ukraine, 5:0.

Javakhyan's footwork was excellent in the final against two-time World Championships bronze medalist Gyula Kate of Hungary. The Armenian's experience, being a Beijing Olympic Games bronze medalist, prevailed and Javakhyan won the bout 3:2.

Junior World Champion and EU Champion Balazs Bacskai of Hungary turned in yet another great performance in Moscow and claimed the gold medal in the welterweight final. The 22-year-old rising star ended the bout at 12:1 against Olympic Games bronze medalist Alexis Vastine of France.

Artem Chebotarev of Russia had to fight off strong Kilkenny southpaw Darren O'Neill of Ireland in the middleweight final. The 22-year-old Russian carried an 8:4 lead into the second half of the bout and finally defeated O'Neill 16:7.

Reigning AIBA World Champion Artur Beterbiyev of Russia is one the strongest boxers on the planet and he demonstrated his power and speed at the 81kg final again this year. Beterbiyev led 5:0 against World Championships bronze medalist Abdelkader Bouhenia of France when the referee stopped the contest.

Titleholder and reigning World Champion Yegor Mekhontsev of Russia claimed the heavyweight gold medal easily against Tervel Pulev of Bulgaria 10:1 in the final to defend his title.

At the super heavyweight class final, Kuzmin defeated another star after Cammarelle, Athens Olympic Games silver medalist Viktor Zuyev of Belarus. The score was 7:3 and brought the Russian's gold medal count to seven.