England's defending European Junior Champion and British Junior Championships gold medalist Pat McCormack eliminated local boxer and Kazakhstan's National Championships bronze medalist Alibek Basala by 9:4 in the flyweight division in Astana. He will now face off against Gheorghe Jugan of Romania for the medal.
All 169 bouts of the preliminary stage of the event have finished at the AIBA Junior World Championships in Astana and only the eight boxers remain to compete in the further bouts in each weight category.
The Philippines' 15-year-old Rence Bryan Magarce was a great hope for his nation but he narrowly missed out on progression against the Russian Junior National Championships silver medalist Denis Chmykhin who won their pinweight bout by a close 10:9 scoreline.
Kazakhstani pinweight class favourite Olzhas Kalaubek had a tough fight against Australia's most experienced 15-year-old junior competitor Clay Waterman who has got recorded 51 bouts. The Kazakh star was defeated by his Australian rival who shocked the home crowd in Astana where the final verdict was 14:12 to Waterman.
Azerbaijan's European Schoolboys Championships silver medalist 15-year-old Elnur Shafizada also advanced to the quarter-final after beating Turkmenistan's Shatlykmurad Muradov by 19:12 at the pinweight class and has a good chance for a medal against Iraq's Kadhim Sahm Al-Ezirej.
India's Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup winner Naveen Kumar and Ireland's European Junior Championships bronze medalist John Nevin had a great bout in Astana but only one of them could advance to the next round. The Indian flyweight boxer showed his best and won the bout by 14:6 and will be fighting for the medal against Malik Muradov of Azerbaijan.
At the bantamweight class two-time European Schoolboys Champion Artem Melkonyan was too strong for Turkey's European Junior Championships silver medalist Nurettin Onat therefore the 16-year-old Russian boxer could fight for the medal against Ireland's John Stokes from Mulhuddard.
Bantamweight's European Junior Champion Norbert Herczeg of Hungary had a strong opponent in his second contest in Astana. The 16-year-old boxer from Kecskemet eliminated Uzbekistan's Doniyorbek Yergashev by 18:13 and will have good chance against Belarus' Yevgeniy Shabelnik in the quarter-final.
At the lightweight class Uzbekistan's two-time National Champion Israil Madrimov from the Khorezm region used his experience to eliminate Romania's Marian Pita by 23:11 therefore he also advanced to the quarter-final where his next opponent will be Scotland's Fraser Gorn.
Israel's European Schoolboys Champion 15-year-old Tomer Yadgarov moved down a division after the European Junior Championships and advanced to the quarter-final in Astana after beating Armenia's Arshak Grigoryan. Their contest was really spectacular and Grigoryan had the short one point advantage when the ringside doctor suspended the bout after Yadgarov's great punch allowing the Israeli to fight for the medal.
Germany's Ahmad Semmo competed at the light flyweight class two years ago however his his new division is the welterweight. The German boxer had a not so easy way to the quarter-final against Bosnia & Herzegovina's Djordje Tomic but he survived it and won by 13:9.
Bulgaria's best welterweight athlete 16-year-old Aleksandar Kostov performed well in Astana and defeated Australia's Peter Proum by 10:6 at the welterweight class. Kostov will be fighting against Gor Jevelikyan of Armenia in the quarter-final.
In probably one of the best contests of the day Hungary's European Junior Champion Adam Hamori and Russian Junior National Champion Zelim Imadayev from Chechnya faced off in an early final at the middleweight class. The Hungarian star took the advantage in the first round, collected the points studiously and finally won their battle by large margin of points, 35:18. Hamori's next opponent for the medal will be Kazakhstan's Askar Duisaly.
In the middleweight class another great battle Germany's Uman Liberation Junior Cup winner Dimitar Tilev had a comfortable eight points advantage after four minutes against India's SSCB boxer Sandeep Sharma but almost lost the bout due the Indian fighter's great final round. Tilev retained only three points from his lead but advanced to the top eight.
Uzbekistan's top boxer and Heydar Aliyev Junior Cup winner Oybek Sharipov is unbeaten since July 2010 and one of the favourites of the super heavyweight class in Astana where he shocked Ukraine's Artem Verkhoglyad. The referee stopped the contest after 82 seconds when Sharipov led by 9:1.
At the super heavyweight division European Schoolboys Champion Khadzhiakbar Mamakov who is one of the best Russian junior boxers also had an early victory over Turkmenistan's Ramazan Nuriyev. This means the two superstars Sharipov and Mamakov need to fight each other in the quarter-final thus only one will win a medal in Astana.
In the super heavyweight class Kazakhstan's youngest team member Didar Tolegen stopped Kyrgyzstan's Atay Sopuyev before the final gong and will be fighting against European Junior Championships bronze medalist the also 15-year-old Laszlo Komor of Hungary in their medal contest.
After the preliminaries almost 70% of the entered countries (32 out of the 46 competing nations) are still in the championships and have chance to reach at least a bronze medal in Astana. These numbers show the strength and health of the world's boxing competitions.
Russia has got the highest number of boxers in the quarter-final with eleven athletes while Kazakhstan and Ukraine both have still nine fighters in the competition. Uzbekistan follows with seven athletes, Azerbaijan and Turkey both have got six, Germany five, Armenia, India, South Korea and Romania have got four while Australia, Belarus, Hungary and Mongolia advanced three boxers to the quarter-finals each.
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