Hamza Auragh, Unto Jansson and Lasse Kourula were the surprise winners at the Ruska Tournament

The new edition of the International Santa Claus Ruska Tournament finished with its 10 final contests in Lapland’s capital in Rovaniemi, North Finland today.  

The head of the local organizers, Mr. Jarno Mustonen worked hard and supported the participants in the event.

The venue of the event was the Santasport Olympic Training Centre Rovaniemi which is located by the Ounasvaara Hills, just 2km from the downtown of Rovaniemi.

Jasmina Raivio started her campaign well against Riikka Vaarala in the opening bout of the entire Ruska Tournament on Day1 but a more experienced teammate, Laura Myllymaeki stopped her in the final of the women’s light flyweight (50kg).

The women’s welterweight (66kg) delivered the best female contests in Rovaniemi as expected and one of the best national team members of Finland amazed the crowd. Krista Kovalainen had two dangerous German opponents in the event but she defeated Emely Dittrich and the World Youth silver medallist Carlotta Schuenemann as well.

Germany’s Mohamed Siala proved strong progress in this event and he defeated Finland’s elite national team member Santeri Kemppainen and Konsta Junttila during his road to the title of the men’s lightweight (60kg).

Finland’s Juho Taipale claimed a silver medal at the 2024 edition of the Gee Bee Tournament but surprisingly he lost to Germany’s Nikolaos Kosmadakis at the light welterweight (63.5kg) final in Rovaniemi.

Another German youngster, their welterweight (67kg) Mark Thomas was the favourite of his welterweight (67kg) final but he was defeated by his teammate, Hamza Auragh in a hectic title contest.  

Germany’s Michael Siemens defeated Jim Forsberg in the earlier stage at the light middleweight (71kg) but he lost to a local boxer, Unto Jansson in the final before Malek Semmo and Vitalij Walter earned gold medals in Rovaniemi.

Finland’s European Games competitor Nikita Nystedt returned in this event at the cruiserweight (86kg) but he had an unexpected loss to Lasse Kourula in the final.