Belarusian, Polish and French boxers battle each other

Three countries take part in traditional friendly matches, held at Minsk’s Palace of Sports

For two days, Belarusian, Polish and French boxers battled each other in friendly yet tough matches, each striving to prove themselves to be the strongest and most united squad. As a result, Belarusians captured four gold medals, with no other team winning gold. However, there were no losers in the wonderful event, which has been held since 2002.

“It’s a great way to warm-up fighters, finding their weaknesses before the main season,” emphasises the Chairman of the Belarusian Boxing Federation, Dmitry Tikhomolov. “Moreover, countries can trial their young boxers before allowing them to enter the main team. Accordingly, mixed squads (consisting of number one and two boxers from each team) often come to such ‘friendly’ competitions. We’ve also did our best to involve the most diverse line-up, including almost all sportsmen from the national team.”

Belarus had only two leading boxers in the event, Vadim Kirilenko and Ivan Baranchik, who showed their skill, as ever. “This tournament is not just a trial,” notes the head coach of the Belarusian boxing team, Valery Kornilov. “Generally speaking, there are no guaranteed places within our team. The only one through to the London 2012 Olympics is Sergey Korneev, while the others are still to fight in the qualification round in Istanbul. Each has a chance but, from what we saw here at home, there’s no doubt that it will be a challenge to gain a place at the Olympics.”

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