Four Lithuanian boxers claimed gold medals at the 15th Algirdas Socikas Tournament in Vilnius over the weekend.
Algirdas Socikas was a legendary boxer born in Zalias Ostempas, Lithuania in 1928 who won the European Championships in Warsaw in 1953 and defended his title in West Berlin in 1955. He was six-times Soviet National Heavyweight Champion.
At the traditional tournament 62 athletes took part from 13 European nations: Armenia, Belarus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, host Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovakia and Sweden.
England's great hope, former European Champion Luke Campbell, was awarded the best boxer trophy at the tournament where he beat Denmark's Dennis Ceylan to the gold medal by 11:7 during their bantamweight final.
Martin Ward took another gold for England when the European Youth Champion beat the Netherlands' 31-year-old Husnu Kocabas in the lightweight semi-final and Armenia's Garnik Harutiunyan ini the final.
Two Lithuanian boxers advanced to the light welterweight final where Youth Olympic Games winner 19-year-old Evaldas Petrauskas defeated his team-mate Aurimas Naudzius. Petrauskas had previously dismissed Commonwealth Games winner Thomas Stalker of England, who had moved up a weight division this year.
In Egidijus Kavaliauskas' absence, Lithuania's Youth Olympic Games winner 18-year-old Ricardas Kuncaitis bagged his first international gold among the elite boxers after beating Paulius Petronis by 8:5.
The third Lithuanian gold medal was claimed by 27-year-old Vladimir Milevskij, who defeated Nigerian-born Glodi Eneste of Norway by a close 13:9 in the middleweight class.
After a close quarter-final which saw him advance on accepted scorers against Estonia's No.1 Ainar Karlson, Ireland's Olympic Games silver medalist Kenneth Egan won the light heavyweight final against Sergey Kuzmin of Belarus by walk-over.
Heavyweight Evgenijus Tutkus defeated his old rival Vitalijus Subacius by a close 9:8 in the third all-Lithuanian final.
Sweden's super heavyweight No. 2, 20-year-old Otto Wallin, claimed his first international gold medal in Vilnius after beating former AIBA Cadet World Championships bronze medalist Viktor Chvarkov of Belarus by 11:7.
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