Ferneza and Andreev defeated top ranked boxers in the semi-finals of the Julius Torma Youth Memorial Tournament
28 September 2019The second competition day of the 28th edition of the Julius Torma Youth Memorial Tournament was held in Prague, Czech Republic where the crowd saw 14 fights. Slovakia’s Lukas Ferneza and Russia’s Nazar Andreev both defeated high ranked boxers at the male middleweight (75kg) and will be meeting each other in the finals.
Mr. Julius Torma was a Hungarian-descent boxer who was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1922 but competed for Czechoslovakia in the international competitions a few decades ago. He earned a fantastic gold medal in the London 1948 Olympic Games at the welterweight and attended also in the 1952 Helsinki and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Torma was gold medallist in the Oslo 1949 European Boxing Championships and claimed further bronze medals in the in the Dublin 1947 and in West Berlin 1955 editions.
Altogether 45 boxers attended in the 2018 edition of the Julius Torma Youth Memorial Tournament in Prague one year ago when Russia topped the medal rankings. The new 28th edition is a bigger event with the participation of such strong boxing powers as India, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
Bout of the day
Kazakhstan sent their best youth team to the Julius Torma Youth Memorial Tournament which is their preparation for the upcoming ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships which is scheduled to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this November. Kazakhstan’s Sagyndyk Togambay is only 18 but he has amazing experiences and results already from the major events. The AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships silver medallist and two-time ASBC Asian Champion Togambay started well against India’s Satender Singh in their heavyweight (91kg) semi-final. The Indian returned in the match in the second but Togambay’s experiences paid off in the third round when he was able to decide their narrow fight. The Kazakh boxer will be meeting for the gold medal with Russia’s Vladislav Komarov who eliminated Jakub Grabec of the Czech Republic.
Surprise of the day
Russia’s Nazar Andreev is not the well-experienced boxer in the youth age group yet but he delivered his best ever performance in the semi-finals of the men’s middleweight (75kg) in Prague. The Russian had to face with Kazakhstan’s ASBC Asian Junior Champion Yerassyl Zhakpekov who won several international tournaments in the recent three years. Andreev exceeded all of the previous expectations and eliminated the super favourite of the category winning their fight by split decision.
The Round-Up
Five female finals have been held in the second competition day of the Julius Torma Youth Memorial Tournament and four of the titles taken by the Kazakh girls in Prague. AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Anel Kudaybergen won their first title following her clear success over Slovakia’s Nicole Durikova. Anel Sakysh (54kg), Mariya Gladkova (57kg) and Balzhan Askar (64kg) continued their winning path achieving further gold medals for Kazakhstan.
Slovakia’s Lukas Ferneza is their best male youth boxer who qualified for the Budapest 2018 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships and he was in the Top8 also at the Sofia 2019 EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships. The 18-year-old Slovakian felt the distance well from the first seconds against Russia’s Igor Kuznetsov and took the lead on the scorecards. The Russian was silver medallist in the 2018 EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships but he was unable to stop the Slovakian attacks in their superb middleweight (75kg) semi-final.
