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I was sixteen years old when I had my second try at the
Swedish youth championships in Oskarshamn 1988.
I had been the runner up the year before and already
made my debut in the junior national squad a month or so
before the tournament, so it’s not an exaggeration to
call me one out of two, three favourites when it all
began. I remember that I felt the pressure to go all the
way, but I was more than terrified to fail.
I really wanted it bad I had told my national coach and
a few others, that I just wasn’t going home with
anything else than the gold medal. It was stupid of
course and surely added even more pressure to the whole
deal. It messed things up for me and I just managed to
get up to 50 percent of my capacity in the quarterfinals
against a guy called, Jonas Råstedt. His Club-address
was Lunds BS (the southern parts of Sweden) and he was a
tough durable guy.
As I said nothing really worked in the opening match but
I still managed to work my way towards a comfortable 3-0
point’s victory. It loosened up the tension/stress I was
feeling and in the semis it felt OK. Another opponent
from Down south, Per Malmsten (Landskrona) came at me
with the intention to fight/land something big, it
suited me well, we exchanged punches, hard ones, and I
came out the better of us two. A couple of big shots
landed, Malmsten wobbled badly and the referee came to
his rescue. I won on a second round knockout.
In the final homeboy (From Oskarshamn) and the biggest
rival for the gold, Johan Ågren awaited. It was loads of
fans rooting for Ågren and I really had the crowd
against me but after a pretty bad start , which Ågren
won , I managed to nick the decision. I had two standing
eight counts on Ågren during the fight and really broke
him in the later rounds. It was a wonderful feeling when
I really came through when it mattered the most. And
Ågren was really a tough task to deal with. I was
really, really happy with the win. One of my happiest
moments in my career.
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