Ukrainian city of Kharkiv raises the curtain on 2017 EUBC European Confederation Championships on 16 June
June 16th, 2017 / IBA
The hotly anticipated EUBC European Confederation Boxing Championships get underway in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 16 June, with the continent’s best boxers going toe-to-toe not just for the European crown at ten weight categories, but the added incentive of the 80 quota places available for August’s 2017 AIBA World Championships in Hamburg. With 234 boxers from 39 nations in the draw, competition will once again be fierce, with six defending champions, five Rio 2016 medallists and stars from Season VII of the World Series of Boxing among those going for glory.
Two years ago in Samokov, Bulgaria, it was the Lithuanian and Croatian teams who delivered historic first gold medals in the competition, and this year the likes of Belgium, Cyprus, Greece and Austria have boxers looking to make an impact, with the top eight boxers at each weight all qualifying for Hamburg. It will be difficult to look beyond some of the big-hitters from Azerbaijan, England, Russia and Ireland for the podium places, however, with the likes of Rio 2016 gold medallist Evgeny Tishchenko (RUS, 91kg), former Junior World Champion Pat McCormack (ENG, 69kg), two-time EUBC Champion Joe Ward (IRL, 81kg) and Rio 2016 silver medallist Lorenzo Sotomayor (AZE, 64kg) determined to leave their mark on the tournament.
With an average age of 22 years-old, host team Ukraine will be revealing its new generation of potential champions to the world with a line-up that includes Bocskai Memorial Welterweight (69kg) Champion Yarolsav Samofalov and EUBC Under-22 Middleweight (75kg) Champion Oleksandr Khyzhniak. Olympic Lightweight (60kg) silver medallist Sofiane Oumiha will be the most experienced member of a new-look French squad.
Netherlands’ two-time silver medallist Peter Mullenberg (81kg) will be hungry to go one better this time around and secure an elusive gold, Russia’s Doha 2015 AIBA World Champion Vitaliy Dunaytsev (64kg) will be looking to retain his title from two years ago, and a strong Scottish squad arrives in Ukraine eager to build on recent successes and qualify as many of their ten-strong squad for the World Championships as possible.
Following Friday’s Draw, you can find all the draw sheets and full schedule here.
