Mkhitaryan had trained the national team since 2006. Under his guidance, Armenia won 6 bronze medals at Olympic games in Beijing, as well as many gold and silver medals at European and World Championships.

After Firudin Guliyev’s 3rd attempt to lift 145kg in “clean and jerk” discipline, Azeri delegation appealed against the decision by arbiters. Upon receiving negative response, the delegation forbade its sportsman from participating in award ceremony.

Tiny, isolated and impoverished, ex-Soviet Armenia has emerged as a superpower in the chess world, storming international tournaments and rising up the rankings.

As its national team prepares for the international Chess Olympiad this September in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, the chess-mad country is in the kind of frenzy of anticipation most countries reserve for the football World Cup.

“Armenians are absolutely crazy for chess,” said Ludvig Sharoian, one of dozens of men playing blitz matches on a spring day in Armenia’s House of Chess in central Yerevan. “When your country is good at something, of course people are going to be very supportive. And Armenians are very good at chess.”

Despite its population of only 3.2 million, in recent years Armenia has managed to outdo traditional chess powerhouses such as Russia and the United States and emerging giants China and India.

Its national team has won gold at the last two international Chess Olympiads, in 2006 and 2008, after taking bronze at the previous two. Armenia has 30 grandmasters, the rank awarded to more than 1,000 top global players, and three players in the top 100, one less than the United States.

Armenians have been playing chess for centuries, since its earlier form, chatrang, was introduced when the region was part of Sassanid Persia, and the game was heavily promoted when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union.

Players and fans here said this alone did not explain the country’s passion for the game, though. The key to understanding why Armenians love and excel at chess, they said, is a 1963 world championship match featuring the country’s most prominent player, the legendary Tigran Petrosian.

Petrosian faced Russian Mikhail Botvinnik in the match, and as each move was made it was relayed by telex from Moscow and displayed on a giant board in Yerevan’s central Opera Square, where thousands gathered day after day to analyze the moves.

After 22 games played over nearly two months, Petrosian scored a decisive victory, prompting massive celebrations and an outpouring of nationalist pride.

“That was what started it all. It was a fantastic example for the development of chess in Armenia,” said Armenia’s national chess team coach, Arshak Petrosian, no relation to the legendary player.

Chess quickly became a national obsession, and enthusiasm for the game has only grown in the decades since.

Grandmaster Levon Aronian, currently ranked No. 5 in the world, is the closest Armenia has to a modern-day Petrosian. Instantly recognizable to Armenians, the 27-year-old has been dubbed the country’s David Beckham and his career is as closely followed here.

He even added a touch of tabloid-style scandal to the chess world through his relationship with chess master Arianne Caoili, a Philippines-born Australian who has appeared on reality television show “Dancing with the Stars”. Their relationship caused waves in the insular world of international chess four years ago after a rival grandmaster became jealous of Aronian dancing with Caoili and punched the Armenian during an after-tournament party.

On a break from training for the upcoming Olympiad, Aronian said one of the reasons Armenians excel at chess is they are individualistic and drawn to one-on-one competition instead of team sports.

“From my childhood, I would see people playing backgammon on the streets,” he said. “Everyone is crazy about playing board games. We love to compete against each other in mind games.”

The country’s recent chess victories are also feeding a new generation of fans and players, Aronian said.

“When you’re successful internationally, that helps attract more people to chess,” he said.

Chess great Garry Kasparov, who is half Armenian, has also been an inspiration to many young players in the country, Aronian said, even though he represented Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Strong government support is another factor in Armenia’s rise to the top of the chess world. The country’s chess players receive a salary from the state of about the average national wage, on top of their substantial earnings from prizes, and the government has set up sophisticated training programs for young players.

Chess is included in the country’s physical education curriculum, and nearly half of the country’s schools offer after-school chess programs. President Serzh Sarkisian, who doubles as head of the country’s chess federation, has even proposed making chess an obligatory part of the national school curriculum.

Petrosian said he expected the country’s next generation of players to be as good, if not better, than Armenia’s current grandmasters.

“Chess is going through a very big boom right now, and Armenia is only going to get better,” he said.

Well, last week Ward was competing as a middleweight in the World Youth (under 19) championships in Azerbaijan, even though he is still only 16. And this time he came up against a hotly fancied Cuban, Frankie Sanchez, in just his second bout. Ward beat Sanchez 8-1 on points, a victory which earned him a quarter-final against Russia’s Kyazim Aneev who he defeated 9-6. Victories over Colombia’s Palacio Carrillo and Australia’s Damien Hooper completed a remarkable double.

The post-Beijing bounce for our amateur boxers is a remarkable thing. Two years ago, Mayo’s Ray Moylett became our first World Youth champ and has since graduated to become national senior champion. And, while Ward is obviously something of a phenomenon, his heroics were almost matched by Belfast light-flyweight Ryan Burnett.

Burnett’s path to the final included a victory over Yosvany Veita Soto, silver medallist at this year’s Cuban senior championships, and he came up just short against home fighter, Salman Alizada, in the decider. There was a time when drawing a Cuban spelt inevitable defeat for an Irish boxer but Portlaoise lightweight Michael O’Reilly made it 3-0 to the Irish when he defeated World Junior champion, Yunior Boleri. O’Reilly was defeated in the quarter-final by eventual gold medallist, Vikas Krishan of India.

It’s exciting to think of what Ward might achieve. Right now, it really is hard to be humble when you’re a fan of Irish boxing.

Three other Armenian boxers are expected to compete today. Koryun Soghomonyan (48kg), Hovhannes Baxhkov (54 kg) and Hrayr Matevosyan (60 kg) will face Nurbek Ablagov (Kyrgyzstan), Edgaras Skurdelis (Lithuania), and Juan Carrasco

Froch had his first Super Six bout in Nottingham and won a close decision over Andre Dirrell. Abraham had his first round bout in Germany and knocked out Jermain Taylor, but lost by way of disqualification to Dirrell in the second stage of the tournament.

Abraham told bild that he would like his next fight to take place in Germany and there might be a chance of that if Kessler beat Froch in a few weeks.

“After my loss in the United States against Andre Dirrell, I would love to fight in Berlin’s O2 World. The arena is my fortress,” Abraham said, boxingscene.com reports.

Sportsmen from 13 countries – Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Gambia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan sent entries for the participation. However, to date, the final list of participants involves sportsmen from 9 countries, as Mongolian, Gambian, Uzbek and Macedonian teams will not attend. The overall number of participants reached 160, including 113 boxers.

Shaw waits for Donaire to sign the deal.

In the first two rounds it was clear that this was exactly what Dirrell had the intention of doing. He circled Abraham, throwing fast combinations and winning both rounds based on his high work rate. Abraham’s high guard prevented a lot of the head punches but Dirrell had a few decent body attacks which gave him the rounds.

Abraham’s known as a slow starter so he wouldn’t have been unduly worried by the start. I gave him the third round as he started to open up more and although this left him more vulnerable to Dirrell’s combinations, he was the man who landed the cleaner, harder punches even though Dirrell probably connected with more. In the fourth Abraham started off again brighter but Dirrell’s quick feet enabled him to get out of the way when Abraham tried to cut the ring off to him. Then, Abraham got a bit wild and left himself wide open to a straight left from Dirrell that put him down for the first time in his career. For me, Abraham wasn’t hurt by the shot but was badly off balance and this was the main reason for him going down.

This was a very significant moment in the fight as it certainly slowed down Abraham. He was clearly reluctant to open his arms more which meant that Dirrell was able to comfortably pick him off for the next 4 to 5 rounds. There also seemed to be holes in the defensive guard and Dirrell loaded up with his punches more often. He didn’t wobble Abraham at any time in particular but it was pretty evident that he was well behind on the scorecards by the ninth round and would need a KO to win

He seemed to realize this as well and started the 10th a lot more purposefully. He seemed aware that Dirrell was unlikely to hurt him so abandoned the high guard and went looking for his opponent more. This policy was working as he pressured his opponent effectively before landing a straight right hand that knocked down Dirrel. Astonishingly though, the referee ruled it a slip and Dirrell did not have to take the count. The extra point wouldn’t have made much difference on the scorecards if it went the distance but it at least gave Abraham the incentive to carry on going forward, knowing his opponent was hurt.

Again in the 11th Abraham was looking dangerous but then went too far when he hit Dirrell on the floor after the American slipped. At first, it seemed as though the shot had not caused much damage but Dirrell then collapsed looking shaken. The referee had no choice but to end the fight by DQ and left everybody feeling slightly disheartened by the anti-climax ending.

The fight was so good as it threw up so many talking points. Firstly, how good are the two fighters? Many had thought that it was a foregone conclusion that Abraham would win but Dirrell improved on the Froch fight and looked fairly impressive offensively. One potential worry for him was that Abraham was able to find him whenever he wanted to as there was little head movement. It wasn’t to much of a problem in this particular fight as Abraham is not a combination puncher but it’s something that Andre Ward should look at targeting in their upcoming fight.

For Abraham it was a bit of a reality check that his style is very much beatable. He needs to make an effort to do more at the start of a bout to avoid chasing fights because he is a heavy hitter who was still able to trouble Dirrell with his power shots. It would just be better for him if he wasn’t throwing them in desperation towards the end of fights because they would certainly be more effective.

Saying that, I expect both men to reach the semi finals of the tournament and would like to see a potential rematch. Doubts remain over Dirrell’s chin after the “knockdown” and by him being knocked out by that illegal shot whilst we will have to see how Abraham will react to losing his first fight. Therefore the progress of these two fighters in the future will be very interesting after this fight and the result without doubt has added a bit of spice to the tournament.

WBC/WBA super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (34-2-1, 27 KOs) looks set to clash with Nonito Donaire (23-1, 15 KOs) on August 21 in Los Angeles. Darchinyan lost his IBF and IBO flyweight titles to Donaire in a stunning fifth-round stoppage in July 2007 and has been chasing Donaire ever since. “The Raging Bull’s” WBA and WBC titles will be on the line against WBA interim champion Donaire. “We are just waiting on acceptance and confirmation from the Donaire camp,” said Darchinyan’s manager Elias Nasser, “everything else has been organized. There’s a very large contingent of Armenian fans and Filipinos who live in California and we are expecting a lot of Mexicans to be supporting Vic, as well.”
Nasser said he was looking at a warm-up fight for Darchinyan in either Los Angeles or Australia.

“It won’t be a walkover opponent, we are looking at the Indonesian Angky Angkota (23-5, 14 KOs),” Nassar said.”He lost his last fight on a cut eye to Jorge Arce (for the vacant WBO super flyweight title on January 10 in Mexico).” Darchinyan vs Agkota could be promoted in Sydney by Australia’s leading promoter, the Grange Gym.

Darchinyan has been based in Australia since 2000 when he represented Armenia at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. He began his professional career under the guidance of former three time world champion Jeff Fenech and captured the world IBF flyweight title with Fenech as his trainer and manager. Darchinyan’s best wins were KO victories over Jorge Arce and Christian Mijares. Darchinyan’s promoter is Gary Shaw.