Poland’s Olympian and veteran star Elzbieta Wojcik demonstrated her top shape in the second competition day at the Silesian Women’s Open Tournament in Gliwice.
The international female competition is being held for the women’s elite, U19 youth and U17 junior boxers in Gliwice.
The Silesian Open Tournament is a preparation event for the European Elite Boxing Championships, the European U17 Boxing Championships, the World U19 Boxing Championships and the Asian Games.
The bout of the day
Germany’s Tatjana Obermeier switched from other martial arts to boxing and she focuses to our beloved sport this year. The German was not so successful in the international stage in the recent seven months but she started well against Hungary’s World Championships competitor Kata Pap. The Hungarian worked much better from the second part of their bout but Obermeier was able to keep the minimum advantage to win their 51kg meeting.
The surprise of the day
Hungary’s titleholder Vivien Varga claimed a silver medal at the European U15 Boxing Championships in Budva last October at the age of 13. The promising Hungarian competes mostly at the 52kg but she participates at the 54kg in the Silesian Open this time. Varga did not find the best fighting distance against Israel’s Ella Joy Aldave in the first and second rounds and despite her great finish, she bagged only a bronze medal in Gliwice.
The Round-Up
The Hungarians have a strong U15 national team in women’s boxing and three of their youngsters won their meetings in the second day. Leticia Varga (40kg) and the European U15 Championships silver medallist Viktoria Nagy (48kg) both stopped their Polish opponents while Dorka Horvath (50kg) won by point decision in Gliwice therefore the trio joined the finals of the Silesian Open.
Poland’s Natalia Niewiadomska is only 19-year-old but she is the No.1 at the women’s elite 48kg in her homeland despite she came up from the U19 events only this January. The Polish teenager dominated her contest against Tatiana Pluta and she won their meeting by large margin of difference. Another ace in this weight class, Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota stopped Czech Republic’s Nicole Vacatova with excellent performance.
Czechia’s former European Youth silver medallist Claudia Totova controlled all of the three rounds against Poland’s Yana Smalina and she joined the quarter-finals of the women’s elite 51kg. Slovakia’s Nicole Durikova moved up from the 48kg weight category but she was confident in the entire bout to beat Germany’s Georgiana-Diana Podaru, a multiple medallist from various international events.
As many of the boxers this year, England’s Crystal Barker also returned to the international stage of boxing and her new weight category is the 70kg. She adopted the level of this weight class quickly and she had a technician performance to beat Poland’s Weronika Dziubek by unanimous decision. Her teammate, Ella Thompstone also succeeded in the session, she eliminated Serbia’s Anastasija Boskovic at the women’s elite 65kg.
Poland’s Olympian, European Games medallist and former Youth Olympic Champion Elzbieta Wojcik competes at the +80kg this year. The 30-year-old Polish veteran demonstrated her power in the first round against Ukraine’s Maria Lovchynska, another favourite and high-ranked boxer of this heavyweight, and Wojcik was able to keep the same level until the last seconds.
The Kazakh U19 boxers impressed in the second day of boxing in Gliwice, their Maral Tolepbergen (54kg), Zhanel Imantayeva (54kg) and Altyngul Aitmukhan (75kg) all won contests in the session. Among the U17 girls, Norway’s Oline Stigen Sorensen continued her winning path and she is now a guaranteed medallist in the event.