Great Britain finished the European Elite Boxing Championships in Sofia with five medals but no gold after Chantelle Reid, Abdul Burton and Damar Thomas were beaten in their respective finals.
The three defeats added silver medals to the bronze medals already secured by Callum Makin and Dimeji Shittu. Britain’s 15-boxer squad therefore returned a total of three silvers and two bronzes from the championships.
Reid and Burton each lost by unanimous 5-0 decisions, while Thomas was edged out 3-2 in the final bout of the day. The results left Britain with a substantial medal return but without a title from its three finalists.
Reid takes light-middleweight silver
Reid was beaten 5-0 by Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli in the women’s light-middleweight final. The Commonwealth Games silver medallist said she was pleased to leave with silver after meeting a strong opponent, while also making clear that she would prefer another opportunity to face Surmeneli.
According to the BBC, Reid said the tournament had brought four demanding bouts and that she was grateful to be collecting medals at major competitions. Her result was one of three British final appearances in Sofia, underlining how close the team came to turning its medal haul into a gold.
Reid boxed in the remaining final session, after six titles had been awarded on Thursday. The championship had already produced gold medallists from Azerbaijan, Ireland, Russia, Türkiye and Ukraine before the remaining title bouts.
Burton gains experience on senior stage
Burton, 20, lost 5-0 to Russia’s Viacheslav Rogozin in the men’s super-bantamweight final. It was Burton’s first major senior championship after stepping up from under-23 level.
He said he had targeted gold but remained happy to take silver from his first major event. Burton also described the competition as a valuable experience after five bouts against high-level opponents, saying he would learn from the defeat and return.
For Burton, the medal was evidence of a successful run through the competition despite the final defeat. The BBC reported that he was emotional after the contest, while his assessment focused on the experience gained during five fights in Sofia rather than solely on the missed title.
Thomas narrowly misses super-heavyweight title
Thomas, the 21-year-old Commonwealth gold medallist, came closest of the British finalists to winning gold. He lost a close 3-2 decision to Russia’s David Surov in the men’s super-heavyweight final.
That narrow verdict completed Britain’s final-day programme and confirmed the team’s overall five-medal return. Makin and Shittu had earned the two bronzes before the finals, ensuring that Britain had medallists across five entries despite the absence of a champion.
The different verdicts in the three finals gave the British campaign a mixed final-day picture. Reid and Burton were defeated unanimously, whereas Thomas’s super-heavyweight contest was decided by a split decision. The latter result indicated a more finely balanced contest, but it did not alter the overall outcome of three British silver medals.
A competitive championship in Sofia
Britain’s results formed part of a championship in which medal success was distributed across several national teams. World Boxing reported that Azerbaijan, Ireland, Russia, Türkiye and Ukraine shared the first six gold medals awarded in Sofia, with Russia taking two of those titles during that session.
Ireland’s Lisa O’Rourke won the women’s 80kg final, while Türkiye’s Havvanur Kethuda took the women’s over-80kg title. Russia’s Iuliia Chumgalakova and Dmitrii Karmanov were among the earlier gold medallists, while Surmeneli, Rogozin and Surov beat the British finalists in the later title bouts.
Great Britain’s five-medal return therefore placed several members of its squad on the podium in a tournament featuring winners from multiple countries. Yet the defining competitive detail for the British team was that its three opportunities to convert a final appearance into gold ended in defeat. Reid, Burton and Thomas each collected silver, while Makin and Shittu’s bronzes completed the team’s medal tally.