Euro Schools 2022 – England top table with seven golds

Team England were named as Best Team at the EUBC Schools European Championships 2022 after a Finals Day to remember enabled them to top the medals table in Erzurum, Turkey.

The Three Lions claimed seven gold medals from the 11 finals they contested – two more than Ukraine and Turkey, who were joint second.

They also finished with four silvers and seven bronzes for an England Euros tournament best haul of 18 medals.

Only three of the 21 squads did not medal, thoroughly justifying the policy of only picking boxers who had genuine medal chances, rather than filling all the weights.

The very first Finals Day bout of the afternoon session saw Leah Paylor (pictured below) take on Ellen Joyce of Ireland at Under 36kg.

And the Wimborne boxer got England off to the perfect start as she edged to a 3-2 victory, much to the delight of her teammates in the crowd.

Layla Straughan was next to go in another Anglo-Ireland clash, this time at Under 40kg, and it was nip and tuck all the way, level at one round each after the first two rounds.

This time, however, it was Barry who go the nod 3-2 as the North Star boxer was forced to settle for silver.

Serena Mali flew the flag at Under 42kg and put in an excellent performance against Hamest Afrikyan of Armenia.

She and much of the England contingent felt she had done enough to win the bout, but the judges gave the contest to her opponent by a 3-2 margin.

There were no doubts about the winner of Rosanna Bycroft’s bout against Diana Dudyn of Ukraine, as the Legions boxer imposed herself from the outset.

She won all three rounds comfortably to become European champion at Under 51kg.

The last of the girls to compete was Lexie Walker, who entered the arena with a steely look of determination on her face.

She gave a standing count to her Ukranian opponent Sofiia Movchan on the way to a unanimous victory at Under 60kg.

It was the boys’ turn to do their stuff in the evening session and it started in perfect fashion as Harry Scadeng outboxed Ukraine’s Serhii Artemenko.

The Repton boxer took the bout unanimously as he displayed his trademark slick and fast footwork.

Camberley’s Noah Barney-Smith was hoping to follow that up with another gold, but after a delay in the giving of the decision, lost 3-2 to Ireland’s Christian Doyle.

It was a close-run thing, but the Southern Counties boxer gave a superb account of himself, despite the narrow defeat.

There was sweet revenge for Tom Connors (pictured above) at Under 52kg as he claimed top spot on the podium by beating an opponent who had got the better of him earlier in the summer.

Scotland’s Thomas O’Reilly had inflicted a 3-2 defeat on the Synwell boxer when they had met in the GB Schools Three Nations in Dundee.

But this time it was the English boxer who triumphed by the same margin to clinch a fifth gold for the Three Lions.

That became six early on in Isaac Huczmann’s Under 54kg bout as he floored Ukraine’s Bohdan Tymchuk in the first round of their contest to bring about a swift stoppage.

The Leicester Lightning boxer has boxed to a high standard all through the tournament and his gold medal success was no more than was deserved.

John Boy Hodgkins had stopped two of his previous opponent, but found Ukraine’s Vladyslav Zheleznov a tougher nut to crack in his Under 57kg final.

And it was the Eastern European who was adjudged to have put together the better working, winning 5-0 and leaving the Mikey’s Gym boxer having to be content with silver.

Bu the day ended as it had begun for England as Tobias Taylor wrapped up a seventh gold in defeating Ukraine’s Vladyslav Kozakevych at Under 80kg.

The New Saints boxer had been outstanding all through the rounds and again had few problems outpointing his opponent to seal a unanimous win.

England’s next major tournament will be the EUBC Junior European Championships 2022, to be staged in Monza, Italy, between 25th September and 5th October.