Soczyński Fought for Gold as Poles Return with Four Medals

One silver and three bronze medals were won by members of the young senior squad at the prestigious 21st International “Brandenburg Cup” Boxing Tournament in Frankfurt an der Oder. Seven Polish boxers competed in the event. The Poles recorded three wins and seven defeats overall. Standing on the podium were Michał Soczyński (81 kg), who fought valiantly in the final, as well as Mateusz Rudnicki (56 kg), Patryk Urbański (64 kg) and Eryk Apresyan (69 kg), who won bronze medals.

This year’s European Youth Championships bronze medalist, Michał Soczyński, knocked out Czech Michal Bartunek in the first round of their semifinal. In the final, however, he lost to Kazakhstan’s Bekzat Nurdauletov. Patryk Urbański and Eryk Apresyan recorded wins in the quarterfinals. The former defeated Czech Adam Trncak by a 3:0 decision, while the latter also won 3:0 against another representative of Poland’s southern neighbors, David Kotrc. Both Poles, however, lost their semifinal bouts by unanimous 0:3 decisions. Urbański was beaten by Kazakhstan’s Ray Seytzhanov, while Apresyan lost to Russia’s Issa Evloyev.

The remaining Polish representatives were eliminated in their opening bouts. Mateusz Rudnicki lost 0:3 to Germany’s Andreas Jaeger. Damian Durkacz (60 kg) was narrowly defeated by another host, Jonas Stang, in a split decision (1:2). Wiktor Szadkowski (81 kg) lost 0:3 to Germany’s Ceyhan Guleryuz, while Radosław Kawczak (+91 kg) suffered a 0:3 defeat against Kazakhstan’s Rustem Bayeshev.