(NOV 21) In part one of our coverage of the recent European Youth and Junior Championships, yesterday we covered the Youth tournament so now we turn our attention to the Juniors. A reminder that in this EUBC European tournament, Juniors are :

“Boxers who were born between January 1, 1996 – December 31, 1997 (ages 15-16)”.

We begin with this report courtesy of the aiba.org reporters at the ringside:

“Poland's best junior hope 16-year-old Elzbieta Wojcik (70kg) who trains in the KS Roza Karlino Boxing Club defended her last year's title in the European Women's Junior Championships in the front of the home crowd, in Wladyslawowo. Wojcik eliminated her tough Turkish and Russian rivals on the way to the final where she had a ‘walk over’ to the gold as Hungary's newcomer Diana Hegedus had a fever in the last competition day therefore she was not able to try to beat her Polish opponent and strong favourite.

England's three-time Schoolgirl National Champion, Crystal Barker caused the biggest surprise of the whole junior event with her remarkable triumph over Netherlands' top favourite Alicia Holzken in the semi-final stage of the 52kg championships. Following her excellent victory, she then defeated Poland's Barbara Niedziela in the final and earned a most deserving gold medal. Barker became involved in boxing when she was only 10 because of her sister. She trains six day per week and her efforts resulted in a gold medal in Wladyslawowo. England's second finalist, Barker's team mate Terri Harper lost her gold medal contest to Russia's Maria Potorokina in the lightweight(60kg) class on a 13:10 scoreline to the Russian titleholder.

Ireland's sole finalist in the championships, Amy Broadhurst had a memorable battle against Russia's AIBA Junior World Championships silver medallist Svetlana Khilchenko in the final of the 57kg weight class. After the first round the scorecard showed equal points on both sides while Khilchenko had advantage following the second. Broadhurst shocked the Russian favourite when she was able to turn the fight around in the last round and her clear right jab just before the final gong resulted in a narrow victory for her. Apart from national icon and London 2012 Olympic Champion Katie Taylor, Amy Broadhurst is the first Irish female boxer to win a continental title.

Sweden's current AIBA Junior World Champion Agnes Alexiusson (63kg) defended her European title and kept her magnificent unbeaten record at junior level. Sweden's No.1 who trains in the Vaernamo Boxing Club led by 5:3 after the first round and she was able to keep that advantage until the final gong against Russia's Kseniya Vishnevskaya. The final verdict of their battle was 14:10 to Alexiusson who will be joining the youth age group next year and will be likely star at the 2013 AIBA Women's Youth World Championships.

Russia's Yekaterina Paltseva triumphed over Poland's Monika Kobylarz 21:9 in the pinweight (46kg) class while her teammate, two-time Junior National Champion Adelina Zarubina (54kg) won against another boxer from the host nation Klaudia Markocka. In the third Poland vs. Russia battle Larisa Sabiniarz representing the host nation' at 66kg was able to win the gold and so Poland's national flag was raised again in Wladyslawowo. The 16-year-old boxer trains in the KS Boxing Chojnice - the Polish club was able to provide three junior female athletes to the national squad.

Defending European Junior Champion Matrena Vyachkina (75kg) and Ekaterina Serova(80kg) made the final tally between Russia and Poland 4:1 following their victories against their local rivals. Ukraine's Anna Okhota (48kg) improved upon her last year's silver while heavyweight talent Irina Vinnik defended her title in the junior level and claimed Ukraine's second gold medal at that grade”. So Russia tops the table with six golds and four silvers.

Results: Juniors Finals:

2012-11-09 46kg Ekaterina Paltseva RUS Monika Kobylarz POL 21:9
2012-11-09 48kg Anna Okhota UKR Wiktoria Sądej POL 19:9
2012-11-09 50kg Olga Gurova RUS Santiana Meurant FRA 11:9
2012-11-09 52kg Crystal Barker ENG Barbara Niedziela POL 17:11
2012-11-09 54kg Adelina Zarubina RUS Klaudia Markocka POL 22:20
2012-11-09 57kg Amy Broadhurst IRL Svetlana Khilchenko RUS 16:15
2012-11-09 60kg Maria Potorokina RUS Terri Harper ENG 13:10
2012-11-09 63kg Agnes Alexiusson SWE Ksenia Vishnevskaya RUS 14:10
2012-11-09 66kg Larysa Sabiniarz POL Viktoria Gerasimenko RUS 11:7
2012-11-09 70kg Elżbieta Wójcik POL Diana Hegedus HUN WO.
2012-11-09 75kg Matrena Vyachkina RUS Kamila Januszewska POL RSC 3
2012-11-09 80kg Ekaterina Serova RUS Katarzyna Klemczak POL RSC 1
2012-11-09 +80kg Irina Vinnik UKR Ksenia Ivanenko RUS 17:9


Comment: The standard of the boxing on display was of a very high quality. The young boxers will learn a lot from this tournament as many had not fought outside of their native land before this event .The quality here suggests that there is a very talented pool of young women boxers on the march in Europe and many of the winners and other medallists here will one feels sure become household names in amateur boxing in the years to come.

Equally we know that not all of the best Europeans were actually here so there are many other equally talented boxers around since each country could only select one representative.

For sure on the balance of what we saw in Wladyslawowo we can expect further significant improvement in standards at forthcoming world youth and junior championships and I would confidently expect several of these young women to participate in European, World and Olympic competitions in the period 2013-2025.

Of course this represents but some of the talent in one Continent – Europe. There are already many equally good up and coming young women in most other continents and with further investment from the AIBA in women's amateur boxing plus the very real possibility that there will be a Women's pro-boxing competition similar to World Series of Boxing in force within the next 18 months then this will open up further opportunities for many talented boxers to be paid in the future and at the same time retain the ability to take part in Continental, World and Olympic Games championships.

To conclude our reports from Wladyslawwowo , we talk to Ireland’s 57 kg Gold medallist in the Juniors, Amy Broadhurst from Dundalk, County Louth, a town which is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equidistant from Dublin and Belfast, and of course close to Drogheda, the home town of Ireland’s first female WIBF featherweight pro. world champion, Deirdre Gogarty . In this interview Broadhurst talks of her career to date and of some of the surprises in store for her in the week and a few days since annexing that elusive Gold in Poland.

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