Krista Kovalainen and Malek Semmo won the best contests in the opener of the Ruska Tournament

The new edition of the International Santa Claus Ruska Tournament started in Lapland’s capital in Rovaniemi, North Finland and two sessions are concluded in the event.  

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

One of the local Finnish boxers, Jasmina Raivio started her campaign well against Riikka Vaarala in the opening bout of the entire Ruska Tournament in Rovaniemi. She won their women’s light flyweight (50kg) meeting by unanimous decision before Iida Niskanen triumphed over Eeva Latti.

Finland’s Krista Kovalainen is a powerful boxer at the women’s welterweight (66kg) but she had to do her very best against Germany’s Emely Dittrich who was not an easy opponent in this semi-final bout. Kovalainen is not a tall boxer in this weight class, but the World Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event competitor landed the stronger shots today.

Germany’s Mohamed Siala is not an experienced athlete in the national team yet but he proved his strong progress against Finland’s Santeri Kemppainen in their men’s lightweight (60kg) meeting.

Another German talent, their welterweight (67kg) Mark Thomas was favoured on the judges’ scorecards against Peetu Salo and he also succeeded in the first session. Germany’s promising Michael Siemens started well his competition against Jim Forsberg at the light middleweight (71kg) winning all of the three rounds.

Germany’s Malek Semmo and Finland’s European Championships competitor Benjamin Eriksson both are strong international boxers but the first younger won their meeting landing the heavier punches.

The women boxers can participate in their six weight categories such as 50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 66kg and 75kg.

The 10 men weight classes in the event are the follows: 51kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63.5kg, 67kg, 71kg, 75kg, 80kg, 92kg and +92kg.

You can follow the Ruska Tournament in their official Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/ruskaturnausboxing