Sweden's new wave of successful youth boxers, including newly crowned AIBA Women's Youth World Champion Love Holgersson and runner-up 17-year-old Patricia Berghult, dominated their bouts at the Robin Round Tournament in Halmstad.
Superpower Love Holgersson competed at the Olympic 75kg weight class this time instead of her original welterweight. The young Swedish boxer triumphed over experienced Inna Shevchenko of Ukraine, Asian Champion Dariga Shakimova of Kazakhstan and fifteen years older Patrizia Pilo from Italy in Halmstad.
Her younger teammate defending European Junior Champion Patricia Berghult also enjoyed the same victorious route in Halmstad and defeated Ukraine's Oleksandra Sidorenko, Kazakhstan's AIBA World Championships competitor Gulzhan Ubbiniyazova and Italy's Romina Marenda in the lightweight division.
Sweden has world-class women's boxing talents in the 1992 to 1996 age group, so there was little surprise at their magnificent results at the 1st AIBA Women's Youth and Junior World Championships which was held in Turkey in April.
In addition to the host team's men's and women's squads, Brazil represented the American Boxing Confederation, while Denmark, Finland, Italy, Kazakhstan and Ukraine also competed with strong athletes in the town of Halmstad.
The host nation competed with two women's squads and unexpectedly the young second team won the women's ranking in Halmstad. This squad included flyweight star 28-year-old Shipra Nilsson, who is back on track with a change of name to Engelke.
Brazil's best women's boxers such as strong flyweight athlete Clelia Costa, multiple Panamerican Champion lightweight 30-year-old Adriana Araujo and defending AIBA World Champion Roselli Feitosa, finished second in the team ranking.
Sweden's first team included former AIBA World Champion Anna Laurell, who won each of her three contests in Halmstad including one victory against Brazil's World Champion Roselli Feitosa in the middleweight division.
In the men's competition, which was organized as a Robin Round system, the host squad finished first in the team ranking. European Championships bronze medalist Bashir Hassan, European Championships quarter-finalists such as Redouane Kaya and 20-year-old Anthony Yigit plus Beijing Olympian Kennedy Katende were all unbeaten in the three-day-long event.
The combined Danish and Swedish squad finished second position in the men's team ranking together with Brazil. 20-year-old lightweight Rashid Kassem from the Danish squad won two bouts in Halmstad, putting the young boxer in line for a place on his nation's European Championships squad.
Among the Brazilian male boxers 21-year-old Esquiva Falcao Florentino had an excellent run during the event and won each of his three middleweight contests in Halmstad. The victories were very important for him because his major target is to qualify for the upcoming AIBA World Championships but his main Brazilian rival in that weight is defending Youth Olympic Games winner 19-year-old David Lourenco Costa.
Copyright © 2010 AIBA http://www.aiba.org