Vladimir Nikolayevich Jengibarjan

Vladimir Nikolayevich Jengibarjan

Boxing school of the Armenian Ministry of Sports with Jengibarjan's name in Yerevan

Vladimir "Volodja" Nikolajewitsch Jengibarjan ( Russian Владимир Николаевич Енгибарян , Armenian Վլադիմիր Ենգիբարյան ; born April 24, 1932 in Yerevan , Armenian SSR ; † February 1, 2013 in Los Angeles , California , United States ) was a Soviet boxer of Armenian origin. He was Olympic champion in Melbourne in 1956 and European amateur champion in 1953, 1957 and 1959.

Career

Vladimir Jengibarjan grew up in his Armenian homeland and started boxing there as a teenager . After initial successes, he was delegated to Yerevan, where he joined the Soviet security organs and became a member of "Dynamo" Yerevan. His trainer there was Eduard Aristakesjan.

As early as 1951, at the age of nineteen, he started at the national championship and took 3rd place in the bantamweight (up to 54 kg body weight at that time). By the state championships in 1952 he had already grown into the lightweight (then up to 60 kg body weight). He was a short, stocky, dark-haired guy who was very ambitious and wanted to qualify for the Olympic Games in Helsinki as early as 1952 . But nothing came of it, as he met the seven-time Soviet champion Anatoly Greiner in a preliminary round and lost on points.

Even in the Soviet championship in 1953, Vladimir Jengibarjan could not get past Anatoli Greiner. But since the leadership of the USSR team with the head coaches Ogurenko and Tscherbakow wanted to rejuvenate their selection for the European Championship in Warsaw , the 21-year-old Jengibarjan got the chance to start in Warsaw in the lightweight. He justified the trust placed in him there and became European champion with a superior point win in the final over the Hungarian Istvan Juhasz . In a preliminary round fight, he also defeated a German boxer, Conrad Guthschmidt (GDR).

In the 1954 Soviet championship, Vladimir Jengibarjan was absent due to injury. In 1955 he won his first national title when he defeated Gennady Borjashinov safely on points in the final of the light welterweight division. At the upcoming European Championship in Berlin (West) in the same year, Wladimir Jengibarjan started again in the light welterweight (back then up to 63.5 kg body weight). He knocked out the Turkish Otsar in the first round in the round of 16 and was knocked out in the quarter-finals in the third round over Hans Kaczorowski from the GDR. In the semifinals he met the Polish defending champion Leszek Drogosz , who was superbly set by his trainer, the experienced "fox" Feliks Stamm , and Jengibarjan outperformed. Wladimair Jengibarjan therefore had to be satisfied with the bronze medal behind Leszek Drogosz and Pál Budai ( Hungary ).

In the Olympic year 1956 Jengibarjan was again national light welterweight champion and therefore went to the light welterweight division at the Olympic Games in Melbourne . There he met his defeated Leszek Drogosz from the previous year in the first round, where he was able to return the favor with a point win for the defeat he had suffered at the European Championships. Jengibarjan was also able to triumph against his next opponents Claude Saluden from France , Henry Loubscher from South Africa and Franco Nenci from Italy and became Olympic champion for the first time in his weight class .

In 1957 Vladimir Jengibarjan was absent from the Soviet championship again, but was at the start of the European championship in Prague . With victories over Dǎnilǎ from Romania , Claude Saluden, Zygmunt Milewski from Poland and Walter Ivanus from Czechoslovakia , he won a European amateur title there for the second time.

In 1958, Vladimir Yengebaryan won his third Soviet championship. He had to fight hard to beat the Latvian Ričardas Tamulis just on points. In the following national championship Jengebarjan was not at the start and could not defend his title. Nevertheless, he was used at the European Championships of the same year in Lucerne , where he became European champion for the third time with victories over Istvan Juhasz (semi-finals) and the Italian Piero Brandi (final).

In 1960 the Soviet trainers followed the same recipe as in 1959, when they did not use Vladimir Jengibarjan at the national championships in order to spare him for the Olympic tournament in Rome . There the light welterweight won his first fight against the GDR boxer Werner Busse, who started for the all-German team, by technical knockout in the 1st round. In the quarter-finals, Jengibarjan was clearly defeated by the Polish champion Marian Kasprzyk with 0: 5 judges' votes on points.

After his defeat at the Olympic Games, Vladimir Jengibarjan ended his boxer career. With an Olympic victory and three European championship titles, he was one of the world's most successful amateur boxers in the 1950s. Jengibarjan remained loyal to boxing even after his career ended, working as a trainer as well as point and referee. From 1974 he represented the USSR in the legal commission of the International World Boxing Federation (AIBA).

Country battles by W. Jengibarjan

• 1955 in Moscow , USSR against Finland , points winner over Ake Kuha
• 1956 in Moscow, USSR against FRG , points winner over Siemes
• 1956 in Moscow, USSR against England , points winner over David Stone
• 1958 in Moscow, USSR against FRG, points winner over Gerhard Dieter
• 1959 in Dortmund , FRG against USSR, points winner over Horst Johannpeter

Soviet championships with W. Jengibarjan

• 1951: 1. Gennadi Garbuzow, 2. V. Klunichin, 3. Wladimir Jengibarjan (bantamweight)
• 1952: 1. A. Jerschow, 2. Eduard Aristakesjan, 3. R. Miregow (lightweight)
• 1953: 1. Anatoli Greiner, 2. F. Lomidze, 3. Wladimir Jengibarjan (lightweight)
• 1955: 1st Vladimir Jengibarjan, 2nd Gennady Borjashinov, 3rd Juri Draguschin (light welterweight)
• 1956: 1st Vladimir Jengibarjan, 2nd Juri Krylow, 3rd A. Jurkow (light welterweight)
• 1958: 1st Vladimir Jengibarjan, 2nd Ričardas Tamulis , 3rd Juri Krylow (light welterweight)

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1951 to 1960
• BOX ALMANACH 1920–1980 , publisher of the German Amateur Boxing Association e. V., 1980
• Website www.sport-komplett.de
• Website www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl
• Website www.peoples.ru/sport/boxer/engibaryn

Web links

Commons : Wladimir Nikolajewitsch Jengibarjan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Wladimir Jengibarjan in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Vladimir Jengibarjan (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Olympic champion Vladimir Yengibaryan passed away