Latvia earned three amazing gold medals at the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament

The new edition of the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament ended with the 15 finals in Lithuania’s capital in Vilnius where Spain, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic and the host country were the best nations. Latvia impressively won three gold medals in the event and all of their winners as Beatrise Rozentale, Nikolina Boke and Matvejs Prokudins proved their talents once again.

Boxers who were born in 2002 and in 2003 were eligible to attend in the youth competition in Vilnius. The Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament was a preparation competition for the upcoming AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships which is scheduled to be held in Kielce, Poland in April 10-24.

The competition was named after Lithuania’s national boxing hero Danas Pozniakas who claimed gold medal at the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games representing the Soviet Union and also crowned three-times in the history of the European Boxing Championships. During his long and successful career Lithuanian boxing icon Danas Pozniakas won 203 bouts out of his 217 total contests in the 1960s.

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 Lithuania to avoid any new Covid-19 cases during the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament.

The bout of the day

Spain’s Juan Pantoja was quarter-finalist at the 2019 EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships and bagged bronze at the 2020 EUBC Youth European Boxing Championships. The 17-year-old Spaniard has got amazing footwork which he proved in all of his contests in the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament. Pantoja, who is a strong Spanish hopeful in the upcoming AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships, faced for the title of the men’s flyweight (52kg) with Poland’s Jakub Krzpiet and used his smart boxing. The experienced Polish is a tough boxer and landed a few nice shots but Pantoja’s footwork decided their wonderful contest in Vilnius.

The Round-Up

The Czech youth girls amazed in the recent international competitions, they competed almost all of the tournaments since last September to keep their boxers fit. EUBC European Women’s Youth Boxing Championships silver medallist Claudia Totova dominated her final over Lithuania’s Vilte Savickaite and won the gold medal at the bantamweight (54kg). Her fellow, Veronika Gajdova was too smart for Lithuania’s Kamile Poskauskyte and won the second Czech title in Vilnius.

Latvia’s Beatrise Rozentale is a big puncher, several of her previous international contests was stopped by the referee. She launched her lethal attacks once again and finished her light welterweight (64kg) final still in the first round shocking Lithuania’s Saule Kardokaite. Another Latvian girl, EUBC European Women’s Junior Boxing Championships silver medallist Nikolina Boke moved up to the welterweight (69kg) in the recent weeks but she opened her campaign in that new category with a gold medal at the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament.

The Spanish youth national team impressed in the first two competition days at the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament. Their squad won nine out of their nine bouts in those preliminary and quarter-final sessions writes history for the country’s youth boxing history. Rafael Lozano Serrano, whose father is Spain’s lone two-time Olympic medallist in boxing, continued those impressive winning paths and won the final of the light flyweight (49kg) against Lithuania’s Ernestas Sinkevicius.

Matvejs Prokudins is Latvia’s biggest male talent who plans to achieve something historical this year for his Baltic country. The 17-year-old boxer controlled all of the rounds against Poland’s Marcel Materla and won the title of the bantamweight (56kg) in Vilnius. The next title, the lightweight (60kg) gold medal was captured by Spain’s Salvador Flores who outpointed Poland’s Pawel Sulecki.

Czech Republic’s Erik Suchy is the defending champion at the light welterweight (64kg) in the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament and he was able to get his second gold medal after beating Spain’s new sensation Fabio Mazzilli. Lithuania’s best youth hopes as EUBC European Junior Boxing Championships silver medallist Aleksandr Trofimciuk and Gelmius Adomkevicius won their middleweight (75kg) and heavyweight (91kg) in the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament.