ASBC Asian Junior Championships

Shymkent is waiting for Asia’s best juniors

The next Asian Boxing Confederation”s event will be the ASBC Asian Junior Continental Championships in the city of Shymkent, South Kazakhstan where talented young boxers who were born in 1997 and 1998 are able to compete in the event for the medals. The event will be more than a good preparation for the AIBA Junior World Championships which to be scheduled in Kiev, Ukraine in August.

According to the official entry list of the ASBC Asian Junior Continental Championships altogether 112 boxers from 14 nations will be competing from each regions of Asia. The participating countries will be as follows: Bhutan, China, DPR Korea, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

The first continental event for this age group was held in the capital city of Vietnam, in Hanoi in the end of 2004 after the Athens Olympics. That regional event was scheduled for cadet boxers but following that AIBA changed the name of the age groups to junior therefore this event will be the first edition of ASBC Asian Junior Continental Championships.

Kazakhstan will be joining to the championships with full 13-member team and has got great expectations in the front of the home crowd in Shymkent. The Kazakh Boxing Federation have been held its junior national event in January while their best hopes prepared actively at the Yukov Junior Memorial Tournament in Gomel, Belarus where they bagged ten gold medals. Both competitions have been used as selection for the ASBC Asian Junior Championships.

The host nation’s lethal weapons are Stoyan Mazur, Abylaykhan Zhussupov, Sabyrzhan Abilov and Yukov Junior Tournament winner Zhumakeldy Rayev who have got international experiences. Kazakhstan’s Rakhat Marzhikpayev came from a real boxing family and he was member of the junior national squad last year as well therefore his expectations are high in the event in Shymkent.

Kazakhstan”s biggest rival Uzbekistan is also sending a full team to Shymkent and they also prepared for the continental championships in an international event, at the Konstantin Matviychuk Junior Memorial Tournament in Russia where some of their team members proved excellent performance in Magnitogorsk. The 13 Uzbeks have to travel only 100km from Tashkent to Shymkent and can acclimatize to the local environment easily.

Tajikistan claimed a gold medal at the last 2011 AIBA Junior World Championships and following Asror Vohidov”s success might be their new team members will be able to continue the golden path in Shymkent. Light flyweight’s Umed Yakubov will be competing in the same weight class as Vohidov and he is their biggest hope in Shymkent following his tournament victory in Russia.

China could not compete in this level previously but they confirmed their participation with eleven boxers in the ASBC Asian Junior Championships. Japan”s boxing life turned into a successful era while Mongolia, India, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan also have got excellent fighters in this age group. A developing nation Bhutan is a real surprise in the event, their military background in our combat sport is in a new story and might be they will be able to show their best talents in Shymkent.