Bahrain’s Asian Champion Jayden Price conquered Bosnia & Herzegovina with his success at the Olympic Hopes Tournament in Sarajevo where the Italians, the Croatians and the Azeris bagged most of the titles.

The Olympic Hopes Tournament took place for the U19, U17 and U15 age groups in Sarajevo, where several of the future hopes impressed in the first and second sessions.

Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Palestine, Romania, Samoa, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates participated in the competition in Sarajevo.

The bout of the day

Italy’s Kesia Reale competed in the last edition of the European U17 Boxing Championships, then the World Boxing U19 Future Cup and she has still strong targets this year which makes all of the U19 pugilists busy. The Italian had a wonderful start in the final of the women’s 54kg against Azerbaijan’s Gular Musayeva but her opponent quickly adopted the tempo of the fight. Musayeva, who is also a well-decorated boxer in the international level, was near to beat the Italian but Reale had also the strong finish to take the title of the competition.

The surprise of the day

Rachele Perna represented Italy in several top championships and she is their high hope also in the upcoming main events but her teammate, Estella Filardi surprised her in the final of the women’s 60kg. The decision was hard for the judges between the two top Italians but Filardi’s hand rose after the last bell of this final.

The Round-Up

Jayden Price was born in England but he switched to Bahrain two years ago and since then he delivered two Asian titles for his new nation. He followed the instructions of his coaches and he controlled the first round against another Asian athlete, Palestine’s Abdurahman Alshareef at the 54kg final. Price was one of the top names of the entire Olympic Hopes Tournament and he had the full control of his U17 title contest.

Slovenia’s Ajnur Memic caused a small surprise in the second day of boxing in Sarajevo but he was not able to repeat that strong confidence and performance in the final of the 60kg. The Slovenian was caught by his Ukrainian opponent, Denis Snigur with heavy punches and his opponent has finished the job in the first round.

Bahrain’s next ace in the U17 national team, Mohamed Attia impressed in the day of the semi-finals with his success at the 75kg weight class. Bahrain’s pride was not able to keep the same rhythm as Croatia’s Cerim Hoxhaj and his opponent had the advantages on the judges’ scorecards after two minutes of fight. Hoxhaj felt that he has the better technical skills and his efforts until the last second guaranteed the gold medal for the young Croatian.

Bosnia & Herzegovina has promising U15, U17 and U19 boxers in the national team and among them Kenan Ciric proved his best on Day3. The 16-year-old athlete is not an experienced one in the international events but he had the strong commitment in all of the three rounds to beat Croatia’s Matej Blazevic.

Azerbaijan has strong traditions in the smaller weight categories and their U19 boxers continued those efforts in the day of the finals. Ali Aliyev defeated Italy’s Mateo Alberico at the 50kg, which was followed by his teammate, Nihat Gasimov at the 55kg, who had to beat another Italian, Tommaso Orlando in Sarajevo. Ali Baghishov finalized the U19 challenges between Azerbaijan and Italy to 3-0 taking the title of the 60kg.

Bosnia & Herzegovina’s next sensation, their No.1 in the U19 squad, Eldin Hodzic had an excellent success in the semi-finals and he continued his winning path against Ukraine’s Yaroslav Kostyshyn. Hodzic has competed already in three editions of the European Boxing Championships and his active preparation to the next was a great success and resulted a gold medal for the 18-year-old Bosnian.