The EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships started with busy sessions in Sarajevo

The first send second competition days delivered a busy schedule at the EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Bosnia & Herzegovina has never hosted any of the previous editions of the EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships but only for the schoolboys and schoolgirls.

Boxers from the 2008 and the 2009 agegroups are eligible to participate in Sarajevo.

The number of the women’s boxers is 130 and joining them, 240 boys are also competing at the EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships in Sarajevo.

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, England, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey will be the participating nations in Sarajevo.

The pinweight (46kg) is a strong category in Sarajevo and one of the favourites, England’s Joseph Dowson opened his campaign successfully against Azerbaijan’s Aykhan Hasanov, winning the opener unanimously.

Ireland also sent a strong team and a huge delegation to the European Junior Boxing Championships and among their boys, Michael Reilly eliminated Scotland’s Rubin Clarkson at the light flyweight (48kg).

The Polish juniors also impressed during the preliminary stage, Jan Januszewski eliminated Greece’s Angelos Karaitis at the lightweight (60kg). His teammate, Kajetan Bajzert’s early stoppage against Ireland’s Johnny McGinley was a small surprise at the heavyweight (+80kg).

Azerbaijan’s Rza Rzayev and Georgia’s Mamuka Kakabadze were the next heroes in the competition day, the light middleweight (70kg) boxers won their meetings over Greek and Irish rivals by 3:2 split decisions.

There were several stoppages at the middleweight (75kg) and light heavyweight (80kg) during the last evening session. Lithuania’s strong puncher Edvin Drutel, Georgia’s Davit Mkhetsadze and Bulgaria’s Nikolay Ivanov all won their meetings by RSC.