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Indian youth women impressed on the first day of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships

April 13th, 2021 / IBA

In total, 22 contests have been held on the first competition day after the Grand Opening Ceremony of the AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships. The Polish team’s woman boxer Karolina Ampulska secured the first success for the host nation, while the Indian girls shined on an opening day.

Altogether 414 boxers including 140 women are attending the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Kielce where the first preliminary day has finished. The competition is held with strict Covid-19 protocols in the Polish city to avoid any new infections during the Championships. India, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia are the nations that compete with a maximum number of 20 boxers.

The host team won its first contest 

Poland has an excellent woman youth team and their boxers are ready to deliver the best ever performance of the country in the history of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships. Their first boxer in action was Karolina Ampulska who achieved impressive results at international events already. The Polish girl was in top shape in the first preliminary round of the bantamweight (54kg) when she met with a neighboring opponent, Vilte Savickaite of Lithuania. Ampulska was smaller than her Lithuanian rival, but she reduced the fighting distance quickly and her aggressive style made Savickaite uncomfortable in the first round. The Uzbek referee, Mr. Aleksandr Khamidov counted the Lithuanian following Ampulska’s excellent actions and confirmed the Polish boxer’s easy RSC success in the second round.

Strong Indian start in the women’s categories

Not only did India’s Poonam win the 2019 ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships but she remained unbeaten at the international tournaments. The Indian gained muscles in the recent year and changed her category into featherweight (57kg). Poonam had a tough opponent as first Colombia’s Vanessa Arboleda but she could manage to win the contest, controlling it from the opening exchanges.

Her teammate Vinka has moved down to the lightweight (60kg) since her gold medal at the Ulaanbaatar 2019 ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships. The second Indian star faced Russia’s newcomer Daria Panteleeva who exceeded the expectations with her style. Vinka had to do her best against the quick Russian who tried to keep the Indian on long distance from the first round. Panteleeva is a newcomer at the national team but she was near to beat the Indian favorite.

Cuba started with two successes and returned to the international events

The Cuban youth team competed last time on the international stage two years ago at the Pavlyukov Youth Memorial Tournament in Anapa, Russia. The Cuban Boxing Federation sent nine athletes to the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships and all of them are medal contenders.

Their bantamweight (56kg) hope, Saidel Ivan Horta has got strong family connections to boxing, his father was also a boxe. He has already proved his talent on the first day of boxing. His rival, Belarus’ EUBC European Youth Boxing Championships bronze medallist Kiryl Levankou was also an experienced boxer but Horta overcame him in the attacks. The Cuban enjoyed his comeback to the international events and he worked well to eliminate his Belarusian rival. His teammate Dany Lafos had an exciting battle against Mexico’s Marco Verde at the welterweight (69kg) and succeeded.