Taylor and Sinetskaya were the multiple winners in the Mykolaiv 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships
01 October 2020The seventh edition of the European Women’s Boxing Championships for the elite boxers was held in Mykolaiv, Ukraine in 2009. It was the first event which called EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships following the establishment of the European Boxing Confederation in 2007. Russia’s Irina Sinetskaya earned her fifth while Ireland’s Katie Taylor bagged four-in-a-row European title in Mykolaiv.
The city of Mykolaiv hosted the 4th European Schoolboys Boxing Championships in 2006 and after three years they welcome the continent’s best elite female boxers. The 7th European Women’s Boxing Championships was held short after the positive IOC decision which approved three female weight classes in the official program of the London 2012 Olympic Games. That positive benefit increased the motivation of the women boxers which resulted a boxing boom from 2009.
The number of the weight classes was reduced from 13 to 11 in the 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships. The light bantamweight (52kg) and the light middleweight (70kg) were cancelled from the official categories and the kg limits of some of the divisions have been changed in 2009 before the start of the event.
The first competition day of the 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships was September 15 in Mykolaiv where the finals were scheduled on September 20. Following the 22 semi-final bouts, a rest day was held on September 19 before the finals of the 7th European Women’s Boxing Championships.
Altogether 113 female athletes competed in the 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships in 11 weight categories in Mykolaiv. The following 24 nations attended in the 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships in the Ukrainian edition: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales.
Russia, Turkey and Ukraine were the three nations once again which attended with maximum number of 11 boxers in Mykolaiv. Poland and Romania almost covered all of the weight classes with big delegations in the 2009 edition. Belarus and Slovenia have their debuts in the EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships in Mykolaiv.
Russia won 4 out of the 11 gold medals in the event and reached the top of the medal table and team standings. Ukraine earned record number of nine medals in the front of the home crowd but among them only one was gold. Turkey produced also a remarkable performance with their six podium places and one title in Mykolaiv producing the third place in the medal table of the continental event.
Sweden, Poland, Romania, Ireland and Norway earned the remaining gold medals in the 2009 edition. France and Hungary both acquired three medals in Mykolaiv but without any title this time. Bulgaria, Germany and finally Italy were on the medal table of the 2009 EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships.
Romania’s two-time European Women’s Champion Steluta Duta was unable to defend her throne in Mykolaiv following her semi-final loss to Russia’s Svetlana Gnevanova. The pinweight (46kg) title was achieved by the Russian talent who defeated also Sweden’s Natalia Luongo in the final. The second Swedish finalist Jenny Hardingz amazed in the light flyweight (48kg) where he outpointed Romania’s Lidia Ion and Russia’s Elena Saveleva in the final stages of the category.
Ukraine’s lone gold medals in the 2009 edition was acquired by Tetiana Kob at the flyweight (51kg) after beating Sweden’s third finalist Shipra Nilsson in Mykolaiv. The Ukrainian boxer later became Olympian in Rio de Janeiro and she is still member of their current national team. The second local finalist Ivanna Krupenia had excellent wins until the finals but for the title she was defeated by Poland’s former champion powerful Karolina Michalczuk at the bantamweight (54kg).
Russia’s Sofya Ochigava won the title of the bantamweight (54kg) in the 2007 Vejle edition and produced fantastic boxing at the featherweight (57kg) two years later. The Georgian-descent Russian boxer was too strong for Italy’s previous European Champion Marzia Davide in the semi-finals and overwhelmed Ukraine’s Yuliya Tsyplakova in the final taking her third European title at the age of 22.
Katie Taylor was not the only Irish competitor in the EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships in Mykolaiv but she became the lone one who managed to win a medal. Her efforts delivered her four-in-a-row title in the event following her impressive 11:0 success over Turkey’s Meryem Aslan Zeybek in the final. One of Katie Taylor’s top opponent Gulsum Tatar of Turkey moved up to the light welterweight (64kg) and claimed the gold medal of the category in Mykolaiv.
Norway delivered several medals in women’s boxing in the 2000s and their new sensation Lotte Lien stormed through on the opponents of the welterweight (69kg) in Mykolaiv. The Norwegian newcomer eliminated Russia’s titleholder Irina Poteyeva and she was never stopped until the gold medal of the weight class. Russia’s Irina Sinetskaya returned to the national team and bagged her fifth European title after 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 in Mykolaiv. The Russian veteran defeated Ukraine’s Liliya Durnyeva in the final of the middleweight (75kg) in the absence of the Swedish star, Anna Laurell.
Romania’s Luminita Turcin eliminated Hungary’s three-time European Women’s Champion Maria Kovacs in the semi-finals of the light heavyweight (81kg) and continued her winning path against Turkey’s Selma Yagci. The fourth Russian gold medal in the event was captured by Nadezhda Torlopova at the heavyweight (+81kg) who stopped all of her opponents in Mykolaiv including Semsi Yarali of Turkey.
List of the winners in the 2009 European Women’s Boxing Championships
- Pinweight (46kg): Svetlana Gnevanova, Russia
- Light flyweight (48kg): Jenny Hardingz, Sweden
- Flyweight (51kg): Tetiana Kob, Ukraine
- Bantamweight (54kg): Karolina Michalczuk, Poland
- Featherweight (57kg): Sofya Ochigava, Russia
- Lightweight (60kg): Katie Taylor, Ireland
- Light welterweight (64kg): Gulsum Tatar, Turkey
- Welterweight (69kg): Lotte Lien, Norway
- Middleweight (75kg): Irina Sinetskaya, Russia
- Light Heavyweight (81kg): Luminita Turcin, Romania
- Heavyweight (+81kg): Nadezhda Torlopova, Russia
