Three Polish victories on the second day of the European Youth Championships
Five representatives of Poland appeared in the ring on the second day of the 26th European Youth Championships. Damian Durkacz (56 kg), Eryk Apresyan (69 kg) and Michał Soczyński (81 kg) secured victories. Patryk Urbański (64 kg) and Radosław Kawczak (+91 kg) were eliminated.
The first bout of the day featured Patryk Urbański against last year's European junior champion, Ireland's Jason Harty. In the final of the competition in Lviv, Harty defeated Eryk Apresyan. The Pole boxed ambitiously, and the Hungarian judge awarded him one of the three rounds. However, the other two officials, from Moldova and Belarus, both scored the bout 30-27 for the Irishman. In Anapa, he is one of the gold-medal contenders.
Michał Soczyński lifted the spirits in the Polish camp. He comfortably defeated Croatia's Matey Uremovic on points, knocking him down once. The judges from Lithuania and Russia awarded the Pole a 30-26 victory. Their colleague from Georgia saw Soczyński winning 30-27.
The third of our representatives, Radosław Kawczak, was unable to overcome the more experienced Czech Tomas Salek. We had already seen him last year in Kołobrzeg, during the previous edition of the European Youth Championships. Sweden's Mika Moisio scored one round in the Pole's favor and had it 28-29. However, the officials from Moldova and Bulgaria ruled that the Czech had won all three rounds.
Eryk Apresyan, meanwhile, narrowly defeated Lithuania's Saimonas Banys, who is one year older, by a 2-1 split decision. The Pole's superiority was not in serious doubt. The judge from Belarus awarded him every round, scoring the bout 30-27. The Moldovan gave two of the three rounds to Apresyan and scored it 29-28 in his favor. The Ukrainian judge unexpectedly awarded the bout to the Lithuanian by the same score.
In the second series of preliminary bouts, Damian Durkacz secured his second victory of the tournament. The Pole won at least two rounds against Israel's Fady Malak. The judges from Hungary, Serbia and Italy were in agreement. All three scored the bout 29-28 for the Polish representative.
[Photo: Wojciech Nagórny]
