Junias and Havryliuk are gold medallists at the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament

The eight final contests were held in the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament in the city of Kherson, Ukraine where the host country claimed five gold medals. Namibia’s best boxer Jonas Junias won the title of the lightweight (63kg) while Viacheslav Havryliuk returned with a gold to the international events.

The organizer of the Group A international tournament was the Kherson Boxing Federation with the support of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation. The event has been re-scheduled from a later date and it was held in the eight official Olympic male weight categories at the 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg.

The safety of all participants, the continuous medical checks, the social distancing, the hygienic preparations, wearing masks and all of the health controls were the responsibility of the local organizers in Istanbul to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament.

The bout of the day

Namibia’s Jonas Junias is member of the national team since 2013 and he is one of the most skilful African boxers. He is Commonwealth Games winner, All Africa Games champion and he claimed gold also at the AFBC African Boxing Championships. The Rio 2016 Olympian boxer has been preparing for his second Games to Tokyo where he is a secret medal favourite. The Namibian boxer eliminated Armenia’s Hrayr Shakhverdyan in the semi-finals of the Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament and met for the title of the lightweight (63kg) with Ukraine’s tall Oleksandr Zheleznyak. Junias used smart tactic and he felt the fighting distance well against the host nation’s pride and won his next international tournament title.

The surprise of the day

Ukraine’s Andriy Petukhov is not the most experienced light heavyweight (81kg) boxer of the host country but he exceeded all of the expectations with his performance in Kherson. He eliminated Kazakhstan’s Amandyk Manashev in the last four and met with another experienced boxer, Valeriy Kharlamov of Ukraine in the final. His opponent eliminated Croatia’s Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Luka Plantic in the last four but Kharlamov was not able to keep Petukhov’s tempo in the final bout. Petukhov won the final contest by unanimous decision which was the main surprise of the last competition day.

The Round-Up

Armenia’s AIBA World Boxing Championships quarter-finalist Arman Darchinyan is a bug puncher at the middleweight (75kg) who arrived to Kherson for the gold medal of the event. The Armenian eliminated Ukraine’s AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships silver medallist Pavlo Gula in a hectic semi-final but after that he had an easier job against another Ukrainian, Liparit Ustyan to take the gold medal.

Armenia produced excellent boxers in the welterweight (69kg) and their Gurgen Madoyan is also a sensational hope for the future. The younger Armenian had to do his very best in the final against an experienced rival, Baku 2015 European Games bronze medallist Ukraine’s Yaroslav Samofalov. Madoyan stopped the Ukrainian attacks in time and following his powerful combinations, Samofalov’s ringside abandoned the contest in the third round.

Ukraine’s Viacheslav Havryliuk claimed silver medal already at the 2014 EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships and he competed in several international events to arrange the dominancy over all of his opponents in Kherson. His final opponent at the super heavyweight (+91kg), Armenia’s EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships silver medallist Gurgen Hovhannisyan was also born in 1998 and they knew each other from previous junior, youth and elite events. Havryliuk used the better tactic and he looked quicker in their final which guaranteed for him a gold medal.