The top Serbian girls won their weight categories at the 11th Nations Women’s Cup
31 January 2022Following the Tammer Tournament, the next European international event, the 11th edition of the Nations Women’s Cup ended in Sombor, Serbia. The top Serbian elite girls as Nina Radovanovic and Natalia Shadrina both won their finals in the last competition day.
The boxers used the event for preparations to the upcoming IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, EUBC U22 European Boxing Championships and EUBC Youth European Boxing Championships in this 11th Nations Women’s Cup. The Technical Delegate of the competition was Mr. Sergey Berdnik of Russia.
Algeria, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, Fair Chance Team, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Wales sent their girls to the 11th Nations Women’s Cup.
There were events for the elite, youth, junior and also schoolgirl boxers in Sombor, Serbia therefore the interest is huge in the competition. Boxers who were born between 1982 and 2003 are eligible to attend in the elite part of the Nations Women’s Cup in Sombor. The 2004 and 2005 born boxers can compete in the youth part of the competition, the younger 2006 and 2007 age groups are the junior athletes in 2022. The youngest 2008 and 2009 born boxers can attend in the schoolgirls part of the Nations Women’s Cup and starts their international career.
The safety of all participants, the continuous medical checks, the social distancing, the hygienic preparations, the vaccines control, wearing masks and all of the health controls were the responsibility of the local organizers in Serbia to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the 11th Nations Women’s Cup.
The bout of the day
Serbia’s Nina Radovanovic was quarter-finalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games which is her career highlight. She decided to continue her intense training sessions after the Games and she is aiming for Serbia’s first ever medal in the upcoming EUBC European Women’s Boxing Championships. The experienced Serbian flyweight (52kg) boxer met with Wales’ young Helen Jones in the final of the category and she needed to do her very best to take the title. Radovanovic was still fresh enough to keep her level until the end of the final gong and reduced the fighting distance against such a technician rival as Jones. The Welsh girl has been preparing with full speed to the 2022 Commonwealth Games and despite of her silver medal in Sombor, she progressed since the last event.
The Round-up
Serbia’s best future hope in women’s boxing is Sara Cirkovic who claimed silver medals in the recent EUBC European Boxing Championships and spends her last year among the youth boxers. She has got strong objectives in 2022 and she proved her strong development in the 11th Nations Women’s Cup. The 17-year-old Serbian faced with Russia’s EUBC European Junior Champion Daria Kostkina but she managed to win their flyweight (52kg) final in Sombor.
Four schoolgirl finals were held in the last competition day and among them Russia won two, while Serbia and Hungary each one title. Hungary’s 13-year-old Patricia Petriman eliminated a Russian talent in the semi-finals and she continued her winning path against Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Ajna Halilovic in the final of the 40kg. Serbia’s Hungarian-descent Melinda Utasi impressed in the second schoolgirl final and defeated Adrijana Andjelic of Serbia. The further titles in the schoolgirl level were won by Russia’s duo, Arina Kuzmicheva and Viktoria Kazakova.
Russia’s Liubov Sharapova achieved medals as a youth boxer in the main international events and after a few years with lesion among the elite events, she returned in amazing shape. She moved down to the light flyweight (50kg) but the power of her punches are impressive which she needed also in Sombor. Fair Chance Team’s Angelina Lukas started their final better and landed good punches but Sharapova returned in the second in different tempo and stopped her three-years-older rival in the final.
Serbia’s ex-Russian star Natalia Shadrina prepared with a perfect strategy before the lightweight (60kg) final and she shocked Kazakhstan’s Rimma Volosenko with her strength. The ASBC Asian Women’s Champion Kazakh boxer could not follow that rhythm and Shadrina earned the gold medal of this strong weight class. Algeria’s All Africa Games winner Imane Khelif won her next international tournament, she was too smart for Russia’s Elena Zhilyayeva in the final of the light welterweight (63kg).
