Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Sandro Poletan is the best boxer in the Golden Gloves Tournament

The Serbian Boxing Federation hosted the 60th edition of the traditional Golden Gloves Tournament in the Belgrade Arena over the weekend. Bosnia & Herzegovina’s young boxer Sandro Poletan won the Best Boxer Award in Belgrade and became the Golden Glove winner at the very first time.

The competition was launched in the end of the ’50s and saw several big champions in the recent decades, AIBA World Champions and Olympic medallists such as Croatia’s Mate Parlov, Uzbekistan’s Rufat Riskiyev, Kazakhstan’s Serik Konakbayev, Bulgaria’s Detelin Dalakliev and Russia’s David Ayrapetyan.

The 2016 edition of the Golden Gloves Tournament was held in a small town in Vrnjacka Banja which is located near to their capital city Belgrade but the Serbian Boxing Federation decided to move the competition back to their capital.

Besides to the European boxing countries, Seychelles represented the African continent in the Golden Gloves Tournament while Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka also sent their male elite boxers from Asia to Serbia.

The first gold medal of the Golden Gloves Tournament was achieved by Chinese Taipei’s 20-year-old Tu Po Wei who achieved silver in the 2016 FISU University World Boxing Championships. Chinese Taipei’s light flyweight (49kg) boxer defeated Sri Lanka’s Thiwanka Sandaruwan Ranasinghe in the final of the Serbian event.

Serbia’s Dusan Janjic won the Best Technician Boxer Award following his performance in the final of the flyweight (52kg) against Sri Lanka’s Muthukurage Malith Prabashwara who is member of the national team since 2013. The 21-year-old Serbian boxer reached his career highlight with his gold medal in the Golden Gloves Tournament.

Alen Rahimic began boxing in Germany but he returned to his roots to Bosnia & Herzegovina and the 20-year-old talent defeated his rivals including Serbia’s Veljko Gligoric in the final of the Golden Gloves Tournament at the bantamweight (56kg). Chinese Taipei’s second gold medal was taken by Rio 2016 Olympian 21-year-old Lai Chu En who defeated Slovenia’s Tadej Cernoga at the lightweight (60kg).

Serbia’s top talent Golden Gloves of Vojvodina Youth Tournament winner 19-year-old Damjan Grmusa was able to defend his title at the light welterweight (64kg). The teenage hope eliminated Moldova’s former EUBC European Confederation Boxing Championships silver medallist Dmitri Galagot in the semi-final and he did his very best once more against Sri Lanka’s Hamburg 2017 AIBA World Boxing Championships competitor Don Ponnawila Dinidu Saparamadu.

Slovenia’s Andrej Bakovic is member of the national team since 2008 and among the welterweight (69kg) boxers he was the most experienced one which delivered for him a title following his triumph over Serbia’s Petar Stosic in the final. The Slovenian boxer, who competed in the EUBC European Confederation Boxing Championships, returned to his original weight class in Belgrade.

Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Sandro Poletan has been competing in the EUBC events since 2010 when he was only 13. The 20-year-old middleweight (75kg) talent attended in the EUBC European Confederation Boxing Championships in Kharkiv and those experiences paid off when he defeated Moldova’s Victor Corobcevschii, Chinese Taipei’s 19-year-old Kan Chia Wei and finally Slovenia’s Aljaz Venko.

Another young hope, Croatia’s 19-year-old Leo Cvetkovic was also won a title in the Golden Gloves Tournament in Belgrade where he was too smart to Serbia’s Sasa Milovac in the final of the light heavyweight (81kg). Serbia’s super heavyweight (+91kg) No.1 Vladan Babic was the second boxer who could defend his throne at the Golden Gloves Tournament following his walk over victory against Moldova’s veteran Alexei Zavatin.