The 16th edition of the Brandenburg Youth Cup took place in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany from June 23 to 26, where Ireland's rising star Michael O'Reilly was awarded the best boxer trophy shortly after his nation scooped up two of the European Men's Elite titles.
Ireland's former European Schoolboy Champion Michael O'Reilly from the Portlaoise BC defeated Ukraine's Brandenburg Youth Cup bronze medalist Yevgeniy Barabanov in the semi-final and followed that excellent performance by outpointing newly crowned Russian National Youth Champion Arseniy Pavlenko in the welterweight final.
A large number of athletes competed in the tournament from Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine.
Germany's top youth boxer AIBA Junior World Champion Theo Krechlok missed the event where for the first time in the event's history the host nation missed out on a gold medal.
On the opening final contest in the light flyweight class Poland's great hope, current National Elite Champion Torun-based Dawid Jagodzinski, triumphed over Russian National Youth Champion and Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup silver medalist Gabil Mamedov by 9:5. Jagodzinski will have a good chance of making the podium at the forthcoming European Youth Championships.
AIBA Youth World Championships bronze medalist 18-year-old Vasiliy Vetkin was the biggest name in the flyweight class, where he beat European Junior Championships bronze medalist Vladislav Vyetoshkin of Ukraine in their gold medal contest.
In the bantamweight division final Russian Youth National Champion Radzhab Butayev stopped Lithuania's surprise European Junior Championships bronze medalist 17-year-old Eimantas Stanionis who eliminated Poland's top favourite Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist Dawid Michelus in the earlier stages of the tournament.
Russia's strong National Youth Champion and Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup winner 17-year-old Kristian Stepanov defeated Kazakhstan's Issak Akhmadiyar in the semi-final and then secured the gold medal by beating Mager Oganisyan of Ukraine in the lightweight class.
Polish National Elite Championships silver medalist 18-year-old Patryk Szymanski from Konin, a member of the national selection since 2008, beat Germany's Brandenburg Cup defending champion 18-year-old Philip Nsingi, who had moved up a weight class after last year's edition.
Kazakhstan's National Youth Champion and Berdichev Youth Tournament silver medalist 18-year-old Zhanibek Alymkhanuly dominated the middleweight class in Frankfurt where he secured the gold medal after beating Danas Pozniakas Youth Memorial Tournament bronze medalist Abdul Khattab of Denmark.
Newly crowned National Youth Champion Vladimir Korsunov claimed Russia's fourth gold medal at the Brandenburg Youth Cup where he outpointed Denmark's 18-year-old hope Jim Andreasen in the light heavyweight final.
Russia's top heavyweight youth boxer, Pavlyukov Tournament winner Ivan Veryasov, demonstrated his power against local Tom Schwarz and forced the German ringside to abandon the heavyweight battle before the final gong.
Russia's AIBA Junior World Champion 18-year-old Gasan Gimbatov is still unbeaten this year and as expected he was crowned in Germany after beating Ukraine's Bohdan Blazhko in the super heavyweight final.
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