Tobolsk became a venue for a national boxing tournament
21 may 2022
On May 16 to 21, Tobolsk’s Central Sports Arena hosted a national-level Spartak (a fitness and sports NGO) men’s and women’s boxing tournament for athletes aged between 19 and 40, organized with the support of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. The tournament brought together 77 fighters from Tyumen, Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Arkhangelsk, Ivanovo, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, and Omsk Oblasts, and other Russian regions, vying for 13 men's and 12 women's licenses to participate in the finals of Russia’s Boxing Championship.
The tournament’s captivating bouts gathered huge audiences. The tournament’s guests of honor included Ruslan Provodnikov, a Russian pro boxer and the WBO world champion, and Nikolai Podyapolsky, the Merited Coach of the Russian Federation and the head coach of the Spartak boxing team.
Box or practice any other sport! Dream of achieving lofty and noble goals, go after your dreams and don't give up even for a second! My personal life is an example of how an ordinary person from the backcountry can work toward his dream through blood and sweat, and get it done all by himself! Ruslan Provodnikov, the WBO world boxing champion, said addressing the tournament’s contestants.
Tournaments such as these are very important and especially so for the younger generation. This tournament was organized specifically for adult athletes as a sign that one’s love for sport does not end at the age 17 after leaving school. On the contrary, it gets increasingly more important as the person matures and ages. Unfortunately, we have seen this disconcerting trend where many promising athletes tend to end their athletic careers right after enrolling in a university despite the fact that their most interesting and significant achievements are usually just yet to come. It is much more difficult to become invested in practicing sports as an adult: your costs tend to go way up and not every family can bear such a burden even if their child is very talented. That's why such regional projects targeting adult athletes are extremely valuable as they provide the much-needed encouragement to younger athletes who look up to them as their role models. It is crucial to be able to keep our youngsters to remain attached to sports and aspire for new heights, Dmitry Kosenko, the project’s mastermind and coach of the Tobolsk boxing team, commented.
In 2022, the focus area of providing support for athletic activities under SIBUR's social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds, has been ahead of the others in terms of the number of contest entries it has received and the diversity of the types of sports it covers. This is the first time Tobolsk has been hosting a combat sport event of this caliber and scale. I am pleased to note that the tournament’s status has grown from that of a regional level competition to a national one while also attracting new fans in other regions of where our company has presence including Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Perm Krai and Bashkortostan. This tournament provided young boxers with an excellent opportunity to make themselves known, show their prowess, and improve their professional skills, Elena Belskaya, Head of ZapSibNeftekhim’s Department of Government Relations and Socio-Economic Projects, noted.