27th European Youth Championships: Durkacz Loses Semifinal and Finishes Third

Damian Durkacz (60 kg) of Spartan Knurów was the last Polish boxer competing at the 27th European Youth Championships. In the semifinal held in Antalya, despite a good start and winning the opening round, he lost a unanimous points decision (0-5) to Ukraine’s Taras Bondarchuk. As a result, he secured the bronze medal.

The Polish representatives will return from Antalya with just one medal. Their record was four victories, including one by walkover, and seven defeats.

It is worth recalling that at last year’s 26th European Youth Championships in Anapa (2016), the White and Reds won two medals: Kamil Offman took silver and Michał Soczyński bronze. They won ten bouts then. They achieved the same number of victories in Kołobrzeg (2015), where they brought home three bronze medals.

In the 21st century, only the team competing at the European Youth Championships in Szczecin and Schwedt in 2009 performed better. The Poles won as many as 17 bouts then. There were also worse results. In Zagreb (2014), they failed to reach the medal stage, with the Polish representatives recording just two victories.