Turkey’s Busenaz Sürmeneli has been crowned the World Champion in the 69-kg category after defeating Chinese opponent Liu Yang.
Welterweight Sürmeneli, 21, is competing at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Ulan Ude, Russia. She had beaten Russian boxer Saadat Dalgatova in the semi-final, before proceeding to beat Liu Yang over three rounds in the final to take the gold medal.
She is described by the European Boxing Confedetion (EUBC) as “a superb talented woman boxer in the European continent”. Her winning trail includes the Taipei 2015 AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships, the 2016 EUBC European Confederation Women’s Youth Boxing Championships, and the EUBC European Confederation U22 Boxing Championships in 2018.
Turkey has a strong contingent of female boxers at the AIBA Championships. European champion Buse Naz Çakıroğlu took the silver medal in 51 kg category, after losing to Russia’s Liliya Aetbaeva. While Elif Güneri added gold in the 81 kg category, and now holds both the European (EUBC) and World (AIBA) titles.
A total of 224 athletes from 57 countries took part in the ten-day tournament Ulan Ude, which was formally opened on 2 October by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his address, the President noted that “women’s boxing has a long and eventful history, but only at the beginning of this century it received official recognition and Olympic status”, adding that “the eleventh AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships will be a success”.
