EUROPEAN BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP – PULA

The stamp has been issued in a 20-stamp sheet, and there is also the First Day Cover (FDC) and the souvenir card. Motif: stylized boxing ring with one of the European stars floodlighted Most sports fans in Croatia, including those who seldom keep up with what is going on in this «noble skill», will immediately link the term boxing with the most successful boxer of all times, Mato Parlov and the town of Pula. It is this town, with the greatest boxing tradition in our country that will host the 35th European Senior Championship from February 19 to March 1, 2004. Pula together with the Croatian Boxing Federation will be the organizer of the greatest boxing competition in Croatia with the record of 335 boxers from 42 countries participating in the championship. Among this number there will be eleven Croatian boxers whom the Croatian national team selector, Pero Tadić, will choose from among Renato and Goran Stojanović, Mirsad Ahmeti, Jetiš Bajrami, Filip Palić, Borna Katalinić, Pero Veočić, Mirzet Bajrektarević, Marijo Šivolija, Vedran Perković, Vedran Đipalo, Ivica Bačurin and Igor Bilić. This will mean the first opportunity offered to the chosen fighters to fight before the Croatian supporters, trying to ensure their appearance at the Olympic Games that are to take place in Athens in August 13 to 29, 2004. Boxers who will go to the capital of Greece will be the ones who have won placements into the semi-finals, the four first-placed in each division, at the championship in Pula's Sports Hall. Simultaneously with the European championship in Pula, there is another European anniversary to be celebrated: the 100th anniversary of the boxing discipline at the Olympics. This sport has been on the programme of the Olympics ever since the III Olympic Games were held in the American town St.Louis in 1904. Croatian boxers have been very successful in their appearances at the Olympics. At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Mate Parlov, member of the Boxing Club from Pula, won the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Antun Josipović won the gold in the same division. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Damir Škaro won the bronze medal for the Croatian boxing in the distinguished light-heavyweight division. Croatian boxers Mate Parlov and Marijan Beneš have won titles of world and European champions in amateur boxing, and titles of professional world and European boxing champions have been won by Mate Parlov, Ivan Prebeg, Marijan Beneš, Željko Mavrović and Stipe Drviš. The honour to participate at the Olympic Games, appearing for the Croatian national team, was offered to Željko Mavrović and Stipe Drviš. Željko Mavrović lost the match in the second round of the heavyweight division at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and Stipe Drviš won the placement between the 5th and 8th position in the light-heavyweight division at the 1996 Olympic Games. Croatian boxers won a number of world and European medals fighting with the Croatian coat of arms displayed on their vests. At the European Championship in 2000 that took place in the Finnish town Tampere two boxers won silver medals: Stjepan Božić in the middleweight division and Filip Palić in the lightweight division. Filip Palić also won the bronze medal at the World Championship in Belfast in 2001. These are only some of the greatest successes of Croatian boxing so far, covering the 84 years of its existence in this country. As a matter of fact, the date May 16, 1920, when Franjo Kulčar, Milan Hoffer, Đuro Monastir and the brothers Galić founded the «Herkules» club, is considered to be the beginning of modern organized amateur boxing. The first written records that could be linked to boxing on our territory were found by historians of our sport in Venice, in the «Documenti storici sull Istria e la Dalmazia». This is where you find recorded that there was a victory celebrated in Split, on September 28, 1571, following the outcome of the conflict with Turkish abductors at Solin, where, among other actions, boxing or fistfight had taken place. At the beginning of the past century, both in Zagreb in Split, in the gymnastics societies «Falcon» we could find boxing as one of the skills practised there. It was promoted by gymnastics trainers, firstly in the «Falcon» gymnastics societies and then at police and military academies.