The EUBC European Junior Championships for 15-16 year-old boxers finished with the finals in Keszthely, Hungary on Saturday July 2 and as expected Russia dominated the gold medal contests.
Russia's Junior National Champion 15-year-old Temirlan Batdiyev showed his excellent skills in Keszthely during the preliminaries and dominated the final against Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup silver medalist Jemal Shalamberidze of Georgia in the light welterweight class. Batdiyev was awarded the best boxer trophy at the tournament as the youngest competitor of the Russian squad.
The tournament saw 234 young athletes from 33 nations compete for the medals: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine.
Hungary's former AIBA World Champion and two-time European Champion star boxer Zsolt Erdei was the special guest of the event and presented the medals in the welterweight class medal ceremony on the final day of the championships.
Azerbaijan's European Schoolboy Champion Araz Gulmammadov and 15-year-old Timur Pirdamov of Russia had a huge battle in the pinweight final in Keszthely with Pirdamov winning thanks to a great final round. Both talented boxers still have the chance to compete at next year's edition as well.
England's talented Luke McCormack also had a hectic final against European Schoolboy Champion virtuoso Viktor Petrov of Ukraine, which resulted in a narrow victory for Petrov, while powerful Reece McFadden of Scotland collected a valuable bronze medal in the 48kg weight class in Keszthely.
Luke McCormack's brother Pat also advanced to the final in Keszthely where he had to face Russia's Yusup Gazayev who had had a tough route to the final in the light bantamweight class. After two rounds the scores were 7:7 but in the final round McCormack edged ahead to secure the championship title.
Russia's Junior National Champion Danil Shamsutdinov eliminated his biggest rivals such as England's Callum French and Turkey's Cengiz Onat in close contests on the road to the final. He faced Poland's miniman Pawel Polski for the medal. The Polish boxer started well but was counted by the referee after Shamsutdinov's huge punch in the second minute of the bout and after that the Russian dominated their fight.
Hungary's Kecskemet-based Norbert Herczeg advanced to the featherweight class final after beating top favorite Russian Junior National Champion Shamil Askerov and won over Turkey's Nurettin Onat by 16:11 on the best final fight of the day in front of the enthusiastic home crowd.
Shamil Askerov's brother Ismail triumphed over Enver Ablayev of Ukraine in the lightweight class final while Hungary's 15-year-old rising star Bernard Barsony and Azerbaijan's Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup silver medalist Nurlan Naghiyev both secured a bronze in Keszthely.
England's second gold medal was bagged by Isaac McLeod, who eliminated Ireland's youngest participant Luke Thomas in their welterweight semi-final battle. Following that he defeated tall Giorgiy Sarkisovi of Georgia in the final while Hungary's superpower Krisztian Sinko eliminated top favorite Grant Margaryan of Russia to secure the bronze medal in Keszthely.
Chechnyan-based Abdul-Kerim Tapayev of Russia kept ahead of Yegor Garbunov of Belarus throughout the light middleweight gold medal contest to win Russia's fifth gold medal in Keszthely.
Ukraine's Oleksandr Khyznyak eliminated Serbia's top favorite Denis Memetovic in the middleweight quarter-final and met Dagestan-based Magomed Magomedov of Russia in the final. The Ukrainian boxer moved ahead with a two-point advantage but Magomedov turned back the fight to take Russia's sixth gold.
Hungary's Koszeg-based Adam Hamori defeated his main Russian, Ukrainian and Swedish rivals on the road to the gold medal contest so his final victory against Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup bronze medalist Vasiliy Tsitsilashvili of Georgia was not a surprise.
Russia's European Schoolboy Champion Ali Shabanov dominated the short fight and stopped Vitaliy Horyn of Belarus in the heavyweight class where Lithuania's top junior boxer Rytis Sutkus missed the medal.
In the super heavyweight final Azerbaijan's European Schoolboy Champion 15-year-old Muhamedali Tairov had no chance to beat Russia's Andrey Stotskiy. The score was 15:3 to Stotskiy when the referee stopped the unequal contest to hand Russia its eighth gold medal in Keszthely.
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