Harrington, Surmeneli and Cakiroglu are among the women’s semi-finalists in Belgrade

The winners of the sixth competition day at the EUBC European Elite Boxing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia all advanced to the semi-finals.

Bulgaria’s seed No.1 at the minimumweight (48kg), Sevda Asenova used her impressive footwork to catch Azerbaijan’s Anakhanim Ismayilova and despite that she is already 39, she won this meeting.

Serbia’s first female medal was achieved by Kristina Nadj-Varga at the minimumweight (48kg), but her teammate, the 19-year-old Dragana Jovanovic was followed her after beating Belarus’ Yuliya Apanasovich.

Ireland’s Shannon Sweeney made a small surprise with her success against Spain’s Laura Fuertes at the light flyweight (50kg) where Armenia’s Anush Grigoryan, Bulgaria’s Zlatislava Chukanova and Serbia’s Nina Radovanovic are the further medallists.  

Turkey’s Olympic Games silver medallist Busenaz Cakiroglu competes at the flyweight (52kg) in this European Championships and she had the clear dominance against Spain’s Marta Lopez Del Arbol therefore she is in the semi-finals in Belgrade as well.

Serbia’s young Sara Cirkovic used her beautiful technique against Moldova’s Iulia Coroli in the bantamweight (54kg) quarter-final but Hungary’s Hanna Lakotar, Romania’s Lacramioara Perijoc and Ireland’s Niamh Fay also are still in the competition.  

Bulgaria’s next fantastic female boxer, Svetlana Kamenova, the last year’s silver medallist from the European Games, dominated her featherweight (57kg) quarter-final against Azerbaijan’s Mahsati Hamzayeva and she joined the medallists in the Serbian capital.

Slovakia’s Tamara Kubalova reached her career highlight with her success over Armenia’s Sona Harutyunyan at the light welterweight (63kg) following Serbia’s ex-Russian Kristina Kuluhova secured her place in the last four.

Ireland’s favourites such as the Olympic Games winner Kellie Harrington (60kg) and the European Champion Aoife O’Rourke (75kg) won their contests today including Turkey’s historic Olympic Champion Busenaz Surmeneli (66kg).