Twenty nations earned at least a medal at the EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships

The EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships for the 15 and 16-year-old talents have finished in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina with its 25 title contests.

Russia claimed 16 gold medals out of the available 25 in the championship but Armenia’s three titles are also an impressive performance. Ireland, England, Romania, Turkey, Italy and Bulgaria were the further nations which reached gold medals in Sarajevo.

Azerbaijan, Poland, Serbia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Croatia and Israel had finalists in the championship. Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Estonia were still the further medallist nations in the European Junior Championships.

Boxers from the 2008 and the 2009 age groups were eligible to participate in the event.

The number of the women’s boxers was 130 and joining them, 240 boys also competed 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 were the participating nations.

England’s Lily Bassett was the first female winner in the entire championships, she defeated Armenia’s Syuzanna Ishkhanyan at the minimumweight (46kg).

Armenia’s first female winner was Hamest Afrikyan at the light flyweight (48kg) but her male teammates such as Simon Simonyan (48kg) and Samvel Siramargyan (75kg) also claimed titles in Sarajevo.

Bulgaria’s Yanko Iliev had a tough final opponent, the titleholder and the Junior World Champion Tihran Ovsepyan but his combinations finished the bantamweight (54kg) bout in the first round, stopping the Armenian.

Ireland’s Edward Harty eliminated all of the favourites at the men’s light welterweight (63kg) and he was still fresh in the final to beat Armenia’s Aleks Petrosyan. His teammate, John Maher also bagged a gold medal in Sarajevo, he defeated Artyom Stepanyan of Armenia at the welterweight (66kg).