Potkonen and Fontijn on the top of the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament
19 March 2018The traditional Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament was held in the OSiR Ochota in Warsaw, Poland in the recent days where world class boxers fought for the medals. The European continent’s women stars as Finland’s Mira Potkonen and Netherlands’ Nouchka Fontijn won their weight classes in Warsaw.
New nations competed in the event at the very first time which shows the Polish Boxing Federation’s strong commitment to boxing. United States of America, Brazil, Australia, Mongolia, Philippines, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan also sent teams and attended in the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament besides to the European countries.
The Polish Boxing Federation will be hosting the upcoming EUBC European Confederation Women’s Boxing Championships in Wladyslawowo in May therefore the women competition was similar strong as a small World Championships in Warsaw where several of the top athletes attended.
Finland’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games bronze medallist Mira Potkonen won the Indian Open Tournament, the Strandja Memorial Tournament and the Gee Bee Tournament before her participation in Warsaw. Finland’s lightweight (60kg) star had to meet in the final of the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament with Brazil’s native talent Beatriz Ferreira which was the repeat final of the Strandja Memorial Tournament. Potkonen was able to beat her younger Brazilian rival by split decision and won her four-in-a-row international event in 2018.
Mira Potkonen’s strong teammate Elina Gustafsson robbed into the bests when she claimed bronze medal in the Almaty 2016 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. The Finnish hope moved back to her best category to the welterweight (69kg) and defeated Poland’s veteran Karolina Lukasik in the semi-final before beating Germany’s top boxer Nadine Apetz in the gold medal contest in Warsaw.
Netherlands’ Rio 2016 Olympic Games silver medallist Nouchka Fontijn has proved she is Europe’s best middleweight (75kg) boxer in the recent years. The 30-year-old Dutch star used her quick counter-attacks to eliminate Poland’s Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games winner Elzbieta Wojcik in the semi-final. Following that superb success Fontijn defeated also Germany’s Baku 2015 European Games bronze medallist Sarah Scheurich in the final.
Russia’s Bator Sagaluev was gold medallist in the Baku 2015 European Games and competed also in the World Series Boxing. The 26-year-old light flyweight (49kg) boxer won the first gold medal in the men’s part of the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament. The Russian boxer moved ahead from the first seconds against Mongolia’s Enkhmandakh Kharkhuu and reduced the fighting distance successfully. The final verdict was unanimous decision to the Russian veteran whose aggressive style paid off the in the title bout.
Poland’s lone finalist in the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament was Damian Durkacz at the light welterweight (64kg) but he suffered a loss to Kazakhstan’s Bekdaulet Ibragimov in the title contest. His strong teammates as Mateusz Kostecki and Rafal Perczynski both achieved only bronze medals in Warsaw.
The Russian boxers proved strong performance in the Feliks Stamm Memorial Tournament and following Bator Sagaluev’s success their middleweight (75kg) boxer Gleb Bakshi won their second gold medal in Warsaw. Russia’s Georgiy Kushitashvili defeated Kazakhstan’s two-time Olympic Games silver medallist Adilbek Niyazymbetov at the light heavyweight (81kg) and their fourth gold medal was achieved by veteran Magomed Omarov who was slightly better than Qatar’s Amir Elsaey at the super heavyweight (+91kg).
