Ten gold medallists crowned and future champions are born during 2016 AIBA Youth World Championships in Saint Petersburg
November 28th, 2016 / IBA
Across ten days of intense and high-level competition, the future stars of Elite boxing seized their chance to shine on the big stage at the 2016 AIBA World Championships in Saint Petersburg. The tournament has traditionally been the place where future Olympians like Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez, France’s Tony Yoka and USA’s Shakur Stevenson have established themselves on the world stage, and the 2016 edition proved no different, with eight countries producing ten worthy champions and many more memorable performances at the Sibur Arena.
“Many of our greatest Olympians and World Champions have had their first taste of major success at these very Championships, and this year’s tournament once again reflected that pedigree. Congratulations to all the boxers and teams who contributed to such a high level of competition and sportsmanship. My thanks to Mr Maxim Zhukov and the Russian Boxing Federation for hosting an excellent tournament, and to the LOC for a tournament that befitted the pedigree of this global competition,” said AIBA President Dr Ching-Kuo Wu after the tournament.
By the end of the competition, eight countries had new Youth World Champions, with Cuba and the USA winning two golds apiece. Of the 70 countries that began the tournament, 19 left with at least one medal, while Australia, Japan and Scotland all earned their first-ever golds.
The Championships were also the focus of a host of educational seminars, courses and workshops under the banner of AIBA’s HeadsUp programme. Four days of anti-doping awareness, in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), saw 170 boxers and team-members from 48 countries take part, while the R&Js and Cutman courses continued AIBA’s work in sharing knowledge and best practice to continue to elevate the work of its officials and ensure the teams and their staff are correctly following hand-wrap techniques and treatment.
The 2016 AIBA Youth World Champions were India’s Sachin Singh (49kg), Japan’s Hayato Tsutsumi (52kg), USA’s Marc Castro (56kg) and Delante Johnson (60kg), Turkey’s Tugrulhan Erdemir (64kg), Sadriddin Akhmedov of Kazakhstan (69kg), Scotland’s William Hutchison (75kg), Cuba’s Osvary David Morrell (81kg) and Dainier Pero (91kg), and Australian Justis Huni (+91kg).
