Youth Worlds 2022: day five round-up

Team England oozed class on day five of the IBA Youth World Championships 2022 in La Nuncia, Spain as they secured four victories from four bouts to ensure at least six England boxers are into the quarter-finals.

Under 50kg contender Ebony Jones faced a tough assignment against an opponent in German Jessica Vollmann who defeated her at the EUBC Youth European Championships in April.

A tight opening round saw Vollmann take an early, if slender, advantage, as her work was preferred by three of the five judges.

However, Jones stepped up her work rate in the second and began to get through with more of her shots. By winning the round 3-2, it left the scorecards level at 19-19 on all five judges’ scorecards going into the decisive third round.

And it was to be Jones who prevailed as she saved her best for last, winning the final round unanimously as she landed the cleaner punches to get the verdict.

Osama Mohamed secured his third win of the tournament as he secured a unanimous victory against Greece’s Panagiotis Kostouros at Under 63.5kg.

The opening round saw the Lion ABC boxer come out well behind his jab and he was the busier of the two boxers to win a clean sweep from the judges.

It was the same result in the second round too, as Mohamed caught his opponent with sharp one-twos on the counter.

The Greek knew he had to force the pace in the third and final round, but the Three Lions boxer was able to pick his punches and continue to score well to eventually win 30-27 across the board.

Jayne Bardauskas was next up for Team England, as she took on Irish boxer Shakira Donoghue in an under 54kg bout.

From the first bell, Bardauskas showed initiative and took the fight to Donoghue. The Almond’s boxer forced a standing eight-count on her opponent and maintained the pressure as she looked for big punches.

The bout continued into the second round but by this point, Bardauskas had found her rhythm and was delivering barrages of punches and forced a second standing eight-count.

Donoghue failed to survive the second count as the referee stopped the bout, thus awarding Bardauskas the victory.

Last up for England was Jennings Gym boxer Levi Barnes, as he competed against Hungarian boxer Mark Milan Petriman in an under 67kg bout.

Barnes employed a lowered defence tactic from the off, as he had done in his previous bout, but was this time matched by Petriman who also kept his arms down. The tactic ensured both boxers enjoyed spells of landing shots onto their opponent.

The second round saw a further battle of wits, as both Barnes and Petriman attempted to find the angles before taking turns to unleash combinations.

The third round saw more of the same, as both boxers produced an entertaining but equal bout which was reflected in the tightness of the final scores.

Ultimately, Barnes secured a 4-3 bout review decision to progress onto the next round.

Four Team England boxers will compete on day six of the championships, please see the details below.

Day six England bouts

Session 1

Ring B, bout 2: Under 57kg – Emily Whitworth v Julia Villegas (Spain).

Ring B, bout 9: Under 92kg – Damar Thomas v Bharat Joon (India).

Session 2

Ring A, bout 3: Under 52kg – Johana Rivas (Colombia) v Lauren Mackie.

Session 3

Ring B, bout 8: Under 60kg – Bakhtiyar Anarbayev (Kazakhstan) v Nelson Birchall.