Lithuania's Youth Olympic Champion and European Youth Champion 19-year-old Evaldas Petrauskas won the light welterweight class in Minsk. The Lithuanian teenager triumphed over Russia's 19-year-old Vitaliy Dunaytsev by 11:4 in the final at the 10th Liventsev Memorial Tournament, which served as an active preparation for the upcoming AIBA Men's Elite World Championships.
At the tournament 76 male boxers competed from the following ten nations: Australia, host Belarus, DR of Congo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine. The local team claimed six gold medals in Minsk, while Lithuania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine each secured one final victory at the event.
The first gold medal was achieved by 19-year-old Youth Olympian Vadim Kirilenko, who eliminated Australia's top miniman Dylan Perkins in the semi-final and followed that victory by defeating his compatriot Tsyren Badmayev by 7:2.
An other Belarussian teenager, 19-year-old flyweight Ivan Figurenko, who competed at the European Championships in Ankara one month ago, secured the host nation's second final victory after beating Turkish National Champion Erdal Inanli by 7:3.
Turkey's 20-year-old Mehmet Topcakan performed well at the 2009 AIBA World Championships in Milan but after Beijing Olympian Furkan Memis Ulas's great return he was dropped from the Turkish top team. At the Liventsev Memorial Tournament the young Turkish boxer claimed the gold medal after beating Ukraine's National Champion 19-year-old Pavlo Ishchenko by 2:1 and may well represent Turkey at the upcoming AIBA event.
Former European Championships silver medalist Vazgen Safaryants acquired Belarus's third gold medal before the home crowd after defeating Australia's Commonwealth Games bronze medalist 26-year-old Luke Jackson by an incredible 2:0 in the lightweight class.
Russia's relatively unknown Artem Zelenkovskiy caused the biggest surprise of the event where he defeated Turkey's strong Onder Sipal in the welterweight semi-final and stopped Lithuania's AIBA World Championships quarter-finalist Egidijus Kavaliauskas to secure Russia's only gold medal in Minsk.
European Championships bronze medalist Nikolay Veselov was the biggest favourite in the middleweight division. Veselov defeated his teammate Vitaliy Kuzmiruk by 6:3 in the final, while Beijing Olympian veteran Harry Saliku Biembe of DR Congo failed his first contest in Minsk.
Belarus' Grand Prix Usti nad Labem Tournament winner Mihail Dovhalevets' performance developed significantly this year and his victory over Australia's Youth Olympic Games winner Damien Hooper in the semi-final was not a huge surprise. The young local boxer claimed the gold medal as well after beating Vladimir Shishkin of Russia by a large margin of points in the light heavyweight class.
European Championships silver medalist and Makar Mazay Memorial Tournament winner 23-year-old Sergey Korneyev secured the sixth Belarussian victory in the heavyweight final where he shocked Russia's European Youth Champion Aleksey Yegorov to win the contest easily by 15:2.
Ukrainian National Championships bronze medalist 20-year-old Rostislav Arkhipenko secured a bronze medal at the Popenchenko Memorial Tournament and won over Lithuania's veteran athlete Vitalijus Subacius in the semi-final and Aleksei Zavatin of Moldova in the super heavyweight final in Minsk.
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