Boxing News November 8, 1991

Boy from Brazil puts Swedes back on map 

- Roger Soderberg talks to Sweden´s big hope for the World championships 

The 1991 European championships in Gothenburg, Sweden brought on some major changes in international amateur boxing. The Soviet Union had to be content with three gold medals and with East Germany no longer on the map Eastern European dominance had ceased.

The old system has more or less vanished, leaving East and West go compete on equal conditions. Countries as Ireland and Sweden who hadn´t won a single gold medal in 42 and 40 years respectively, once again reached the top.

Roberto Welin won Sweden’s gold medal at welterweight outpointing Sovjet Vladimir Ereschenko in the final. Not long ago a Swedish victory against Soviet in a major boxing tournament would have been regarded as most unlikely. In the opening round of the championships Welin stopped England´s Paul Burns in one round.

“It is really not about countries,”, says Welin. “ It is about people like Paul Griffin and me. Give us the same conditions as the Eastern Europeans have had for a long time. Then we´ll beat them. It´s as simple as that”.

Robert Welin was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1966. His father had moved to Brazil to work as an agronomist and there married a Brazilian woman, Roberto´s mother. In 1981 the Welin family decided to move back to Sweden, but changed their minds and returned to Brazil where they still live. That is, except, Roberto, who has stayed on in Sweden.

He started to box for the Enighet Club in Malmö, south Sweden. He still represents the club, but for a while he boxed for another club in Västerås (West of Stockholm), while completing his training to become an aircraft mechanic. 

He became the Swedish junior champion in 1985 and has since won the Swedish championships at senior level in 1989 and 1991. He also boxed the European championships and the World championships in 1989 where both time he reached the quarter-finals. 

He got a major breakthrough at international level winner the Inter Cup in Germany in 1989 and has since won the Copenhagen Cup in 1991 and the Stockholm Box tournament in 1991.

“Right now I feel very confident about the future”, he says. “ I have a sponsorship deal which allows me to train full-time until the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

When asked about his strongest assets as a boxer, Roberto Welin smiles and just says: “ I’ m handsome”. His club coach Gunnar Bentsson fills in, however: “Robert is strong, fast and punches hard. But most of all he is extremely dedicated. Dedication is often forgotten when you talk about boxer´s assets. But without that you won´t achive anything in the long run”. Is there anything Roberto really wants? “Yes, I lost to the 1989 world champion Francis Vastag of Rumania in Italy in March 1991, But I´don´t know what happened to him”.