From April 7 to 9, the 2023 Ukraine national championships took place for juniors and seniors. The event was held in the sports complex of the primary trade union organization PJSC (Poltava Medical Glass Plant) in Poltava.
Two hundred participants from sixteen regions of Ukraine and the city of Kyiv partook in the competition, with the Kyiv region taking gold in the overall team rankings at both junior and senior levels.
National team standout Ivan Yuschenko topped the podium again, adding another national title to his long list of accolades. The welterweight standout has thrived in the IMMAF ranks, progressing from the youth competitions through to the junior ranks.
Yuschenko graduated from the youth ranks after winning a Youth A world gold in 2021. He fell short of gold in his first outing in the junior welterweight division at the 2022 European Championships, where he settled for bronze. However, he bounced back in style, winning five bouts on the bounce to take a junior world gold at the 2022 World Championships in February.
His success at the national championships in the lightweight division could mean he opts to pursue a world title in a second weight division in the coming year.
Elsewhere in the competition, some other familiar faces to feature on the Ukrainian national squad, Marianna Skuba and Dmytro Makarov, were among the athletes to win gold medals.
With the IMMAF calendar filling up, we will get to see many of the medalists from the Ukraine national championships representing the nation internationally. A full list of medalists and the overall rankings by region can be found here.
