Two champions will be looking for victory again at the EUBC Junior European Boxing Championships, with England’s Humza Ali Malik and Tihran Ovsepian from Armenia returning for the 2024 edition in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Both boxers move up in weight categories, as they look to continue their fine record in the competition, which is set to take place from 21 June to 1 July 2024 at the Arena Hotel Hills in Sarajevo.

Malik won the men’s 46kg title in Ploiesti, Romania, last year and will now compete in the weight class above at 50kg. He is not the only boxer from the previous podium to return. Moldova’s Roman Spak claimed bronze at 46kg and will again face Malik in a bid to become the European champion. Beside Spak on the podium was fellow third-placed Nearchos-Petros Konstantinoudis from Greece, who will look to return there in the men’s 52kg tournament.

There is a guarantee of a new champion in the men’s 50kg competition as Armenian Tihran Ovsepian moves up to 54kg, the same weight category that Bulgaria’s 52kg bronze medallist Yanko Metodiev Iliev will compete in too.

While several male athletes mentioned will be in heavier bouts this year, the two returning females – Italy’s Sara Scorrano and Hungary’s Vivien Kapcsos – will be aiming to make the final again.

Scorrano was the women’s 66kg silver medallist, losing to Ukraine’s Anhelina Nekrasova, while Kapcsos was also a runner-up in the women’s 70kg to Turkiye’s Yonca Gul Yilmaz. With both of their ultimate foes not competing this year, both will be looking to go one medal better in 2024.

A similar hope lies for Armenia’s Hayk Ghahramanyan in the men’s 80kg tournament, having lost the 2023 final against Romanian Matei Nastasiuc. While he will be confident of his chances of topping the podium this year, Greece’s Ioannis Poumpouridis – who won bronze in the men’s 75kg tournament last year – will move up to the weight category.

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