With quite a few historical moments happening the past two weeks in Baku, the 16th edition of the AIBA World Boxing Championships has demonstrated that our beloved sport is still in great development all around the World.
First of all a new record was established in terms of number of participants. After 552 athletes competed in the event in Milan two years ago, 570 boxers fought in Azerbaijan, even though some nations were not able to send their teams for logistic reasons.
Ukraine finished on top of the teams ranking in Baku for the very first time in the history of the event while Russia could only secure the fourth position. That is the worst performance for Russia since 1999.
If Brazilian Everton Dos Santos Lopes offered South America its first gold medal in an AIBA Elite event, middleweight Ryota Murata reached Japan's best ever result with his silver medal.
India, one of the best developing countries in Asia, only won its second medal in the history of AIBA World Championships. Following Vijender Singh's bronze in Milan, teenager Vikas Krishan Yadav secured the same medal in Baku. The real Indian breakthrough is expected for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Jose Kelvin de la Nieve and Jonathan Alonso have reached two Olympic quotas for Spain. It is the best Spanish result in boxing since the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
Serbia secured one quota place for the first time since the country has been separated from Montenegro. To win this ticket, Serbian middleweight National Champion, 28-year-old Aleksandar Drenovak demonstrated enough experience to beat Asian Championships gold medallist, Chinese Zhang Jianting.
Beijing Olympian and WSB boxer John Joe Nevin has become the first Irish to win two AIBA World Championships medals. Knowing that the country's bantamweight No.1 is only 22, he has a real chance to develop his medals collection in the future.
The youngest qualified boxer for London is Youth Olympic Games winner, Cuban Robeisy Ramirez who will only turn 18 later this year. Azerbaijan's silver medallist Teymur Mammadov and Philippines' new sensation Mark Anthony Barriga are both born in 1993 as well.
Two other boxers showcased at the 1st Youth Olympic Games in Singapore have qualified for London: Australia's Damien Hooper and Hungary's Zoltan Harcsa.
Last but not least, quite a lot of World Series of Boxing athletes made magnificent performances in Baku. Among them, Brazilian Everton Lopes dos Santos and Azeri Magomedrasul Medzhidov won a gold medal at the World Championships.
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