Less than a month after crowning the Olympic Trials for Men’s Boxing champions, USA Boxing will return to Reno, Nev., for the fourth edition of the Junior Open and Youth National Championships January 5-9 at the Grand Sierra Resort. The event has proven to be a preview for future Olympians as evidenced by four Olympic Trials champions and 2016 Olympian Carlos Balderas (Santa Maria, Calif.) all winning gold medals in the Junior Open and Youth National Championships over the past four years.
Athletes ranging in age from 14 to 18 will compete in the five-day event in Reno with the youth men vying for a berth on the 2016 Youth World Championships squad and the other three divisions boxing for a spot on the USA Boxing national team. On-site registration will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, January 4 before the mandatory general weigh-in at 4 p.m.
Junior Open and Youth National Championships will take place at noon and 6 p.m. daily from Tuesday, January 5 through Saturday, January 9 at the Grand Sierra Resort Summit Pavilion. Admission will be free of charge throughout the week.
Four reigning Junior World Champions will return to Reno for the 2016 Junior Open and Youth National Championships after claiming the top spot in the world in 2015. Marc Castro (Fresno, Calif.) became the third American male boxer ever to win a Junior World Championship with a victory in the bantamweight division last September in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has returned in 2016 in the youth division and could win the chance to compete for a youth world title with another gold medal in Reno. Jesse Rodriguez (San Antonio, Texas), Rey Diaz (N. Las Vegas, Nev.), and Gabriel Flores (Stockton, Calif.) claimed silver medals in the recent Junior World Championships with Harley Mederos (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Leon Lawson III (Flint, Mich.) taking silver. All five medalists are slated to return to Reno to defend the national championships that earned them berths on the United States squad.
Three American women won world titles at the 2015 Junior World Championships and they will all compete in the 2016 Junior Open and Youth National Championships. Light flyweight Heaven Garcia (El Monte, Calif.) took the world by storm last May in Taiwan and she’s back to defend her national title in Reno. She will be joined by featherweight world champion and AIBA Junior Female Boxer of the Year Zhane Crockett (Toledo, Ohio) who is slated to compete at the welterweight division in Reno and lightweight champion Guadalupe Gutierrez (Sacramento, Calif.) who will make the move up to the youth division in 2016. Two female junior world championships silver medalists will compete in the older age group in Reno as well. Bantamweight Yarisel Ramirez (Las Vegas, Nev.) and light welterweight Kylie Hall (Clovis, Calif.) both took silver at the 2015 Junior World Championships and they will compete for gold in the youth division at this year’s domestic event.
In addition to all of the world medalists competing in the 2016 Junior Open and Youth National Championships, 22 returning titlists are back from the 2015 event. Two of the 2015 youth national champions, bantamweight Shakur Stevenson (Newark, N.J.) and middleweight Charles Conwell (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) extended their Reno winning streaks with victories in the recent Olympic Trials and are now focused on the 2016 Olympic Games. Light flyweight Nico Hernandez (Wichita, Kansas) and flyweight Antonio Vargas (Kissimmee, Fla.) also claimed victories in the Youth National Championships in Reno prior to winning gold at the Olympic Trials.
The Junior Open began in 2013 with less than 80 competitors and over the last four years, the event has grown to two age divisions with more than 300 athletes boxing in the annual tournament. Since its inception, the event has determined U.S. teams which went on to win seven world titles, two Youth Olympic Games gold medals and 12 world championships medals.
