Always a pleasure to see that some sports that have been recently introduced or reintroduced in our program have succeeded in captivating the interest of our member associations. So these competitions find a spot on our calendar on a regular basis, which is an excellent way of ensuring their long-lasting success. Boxing is among these disciplines.
After the two previous editions in Antalya, Turkey in 2004 and Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2006, the Russian Federation picked up the challenge by organizing the third edition in Kazan in 2008. The first two championship games attracted a full load of participants, which is not that easy to do. As the organizer of the Summer Universiade in 2013, the Russian city of Kazan was an excellent venue for the third World University Boxing Championships.
Mbonabi Mmeli (RSA) vs. Dmitry Dragunov (UKR)
The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan stands in the centre of the Russian Federation in the plains of Eastern Europe. This is one of the largest scientific and educational centres in Russia. It has a unique historical and cultural heritage that places it among the towns on the
Unesco world heritage list, and it has many high quality sports infrastructures as well.
The championship was of course part of the effort to prepare for the 2013 Universiade and no doubt Kazan will be organizing other events in the near future for the same purpose.
The colours of the future Universiade can already be seen all over the city. With only 16 countries and 94 boxers, participation was down from the previous editions. Despite that, the event was a very popular success and it was a great pleasure for the athletes to practice their sport in a full stadium. Russia had sent in a very strong team with the intention of shining on home ground, and as a result it won no fewer than 7 titles out of the 11 in the competition.
The other Eastern European countries were also on the front lines: Russia of course, as well as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and the Ukraine. It is a secret for no one that the Kazan Universiade Organizing Committee would like to propose boxing as an optional sport on the program. For this reason, a large delegation of federal government representatives attended the championship. This gave them the possibility to assess the specific needs for this type of event, and more broadly for games like the Universiade.
Marat Bariev, the Minister for Youth, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan was also present. He was very satisfied and optimistic for the future: “Here we have had a very high level competition, and to my mind, the matches were very similar to the ones I saw at the Olympic Games in Beijing”. (…) “Many national trainers were here in Kazan, to watch the next generation of boxers at work. We are particularly proud that two of our participants from Kazan joined the national team and took a gold medal. I’m very optimistic about the chances of organizing this sport at our Universiade: we have the boxers, trainers, the infrastructures and … a fantastic audience!”