Danas Pozniakas

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Danas Pozniakas (born October 19, 1939 near Białystok , Poland , † February 4, 2005 in Vilnius , Lithuania ) was a Soviet boxer of Lithuanian nationality. He was Olympic champion in 1968 and three-time European amateurs light heavyweight champion.

Career

Pozniakas grew up in Vilnius and started boxing there in 1953 as a teenager . His first trainers were Z. Katiljus and A. Levitska. After he had already achieved some successes at the regional level, he started in Alma-Ata in 1960 in a qualifying tournament for the Soviet championships, which he won in his weight class, the middleweight division. He was therefore able to start at the 1960 Soviet championship in Leningrad . Pozniakas surprised the professional world with victories over the experienced boxers R. Akopow and Anatoli Koromyslow , with whom he reached the middleweight finals. In this, however, he was defeated by Ewgeni Feofanow just on points.

Pozniakas, who had meanwhile entered the Soviet Army, also started in the Soviet championship in 1961. He had moved up to the light heavyweight division and suffered a surprising defeat by Alexander Pischkow in this weight class in the semifinals. The responsible Soviet coaches Ogurenkow and Tscherbakow sent him despite this defeat to this year's European championship in Belgrade . There he only got one victory in the round of 16 over the Austrian Kurt Schindler. In the quarterfinals he lost to the experienced Romanian Gheorghe Negrea on points and was eliminated.

In 1962 Pozniakas was the first Soviet light heavyweight champion. In the final he defeated Grigory Ivanov on points. International championships did not take place in 1962.

1963 Pozniakas could not start in the Soviet championship due to injury. However, shortly after his recovery, he won the light heavyweight title at the 3rd championship of the armies of the Warsaw Pact states in Kromirz / CSSR by winning points over the Romanian Ioanovici Ivan and was then also used at the European light heavyweight championship in Moscow . In Moscow he won over Jan Lubbers from the Netherlands on points and defeated Stefan Cojan from Romania in the quarterfinals . In the semifinals he landed a sure point victory over the strong French Bernard Thebault and was in the final against the three-time Polish European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski . He was unlucky in this fight because he had to be removed from the fight because of a serious injury. Because of this injury, he could not start in the Soviet championship in 1963.

In 1964, Pozniakas, just recovered from his injury, was beaten on points at the Soviet championship in the semi-finals by Alexei Kisseljow and thus missed the start at the Olympic Games that year in Tokyo .

Pozniakas did not give up and in 1965 won the light heavyweight title from Alexei Kisseljow back at the Soviet championship, which he scored in the final. At the European Championships in East Berlin , he then achieved his first major triumph at an international championship. With four victories, he became European champion in a convincing manner . On the way to the title he beat Sören Nielsen from Denmark through techn. KO in the 1st round, Istvan Erdös from Hungary by techn. KO in the 3rd round and in the semifinals Bela Horvath from Switzerland by KO in the 1st round. In the final he faced the German super technician Peter Gerber , whom he defeated on points mainly through his superior physique.

In 1966, a year without international championships, Pozniakas did not appear. He also did not start in the Soviet championship. In 1967 he was back in the ring. First he was again European light heavyweight champion in Rome . He won over Hans-Joachim Brauske from Halle by breaking off in the 3rd round, then beat the later professional European champion Rudi Lubbers from the Netherlands on points and was knocked out in the semifinals over Ion Monea from Romania . In the final he defeated Peter Gerber from Bremen again on points.

In the Olympic year 1968 all his focus was on these games. He wanted to finally become an Olympic champion. He took the first step towards this at the Soviet championship that year when he defeated Alexei Kisseljow on points in the final. In Mexico City he was well prepared and defeated Gregorio Aldana from Cuba in the round of 16 of the Olympic boxing tournament by knockout in the 2nd round, in the quarterfinals Jürgen Schlegel from the GDR on points and in the semifinals he was sure to win points over Georgi Stankow from Bulgaria . In the final he won without a fight over Ion Monea, who had broken his nose in the semifinals against Stanisław Dragan from Poland , and won the gold medal .

Pozniakas actually wanted to resign afterwards, but went to the European Championships in Bucharest in 1969 again for the Soviet Union because there was no competitive light heavyweight available. He also convinced in Bucharest and became European champion for the third time with victories over Jan-Olof Oster from Sweden , Ralf Jensen from Denmark and Ion Monea.

After this renewed title win Pozniakas resigned for good. He was honored for his services in the Soviet Union and received, as was customary at the time, the title of "Honored Master of Sports of the USSR" and the Order of the Red Banner. He continued to live in Vilnius. After Lithuania became independent again in 1991, he was celebrated in this country as the first Lithuanian Olympic champion. In 2004 he received a fair play award from the Lithuanian Olympic Committee.

In 2005 Pozniakas was killed in a car accident. In his honor, the European Amateur Boxing Union organizes an annual youth tournament that bears his name.

International battles Dan Pozniaks

  • 1962 in London , England against USSR , points winner over Ian Lawther,
  • 1962 in Wolverhampton , England against USSR, demolition winner 1st round over T. Walsh,
  • 1962 in Cologne , FRG against USSR, points winner (2: 1) over Jürgen Wegener,
  • 1962 in Bonn , FRG against USSR, point winner over I. Braun,
  • 1964 in Moscow , USSR against Poland , KO winner 2nd round over Eugeniusz Lasek

Soviet championships with Danas Pozniakas

(1960 middleweight, otherwise light heavyweight)

  • 1960: 1. Evgeni Feofanow , 2. Danas Pozniakas, 3. Anatoli Koromyslow a . Valery Popenchenko ,
  • 1961: 1. Alexander Pischkow, 2. V. Ilchenko, 3. Danas Pozniakas a. V. Kozlowski,
  • 1962: 1. Danas Pozniakas, 2. Grigori Iwanow, 3. Boris Karewski a. V. Krasilnikov,
  • 1964: 1. Alexei Kisseljow , 2. Juri Konoplew, 3. Danas Pozniakas and E. Zimin,
  • 1965: 1. Danas Pozniakas, 2. Alexei Kisseljow, 3. V. Minakow a. A. Butko,
  • 1967: 1. Danas Pozniakas, 2. Alexei Kisseljow, 3. V. Minakow a. A. Tkachenko,
  • 1968: 1. Danas Pozniakas, 2. Alexei Kisseljow, 3. Vytautas Bingalis a. V. Minakov

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personal data
SURNAME Pozniakas, Danas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pozniak, Dan (Russian name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet boxer
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH near Białystok , Poland
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 2005
Place of death Vilnius , Lithuania