Balkan Open 2014 report

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Published on Tuesday, 17 June 2014 18:26

"International kickboxing cup named "Balkan Open 2014" took place in city of Tešanj in Bosnia and Herzegovina on last June 13-15, 2014. On this WAKO international event participated 512 fighters representing 79 clubs from 14 countries: Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In all kickboxing styles there could be seen many good fights and fighters. The best team was National team of Serbia who dominated in all ring disciplines.
The promoter of this WAKO event was Mr. Alija Ogrić, president of WAKO Bosnia and Herzegovina and technical organizer was kicboxing team "Tešanj".

OFFICIAL EVENT REPORT

IMAGE GALLERY ON THIS LINK

GERMAN OPEN 2014

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Published on Tuesday, 27 May 2014 19:24

GERMAN OPEN 08.-10.05.2014 in Ebern

The German Open in Ebern are finished. Unfortunately, other big international activities took place at the same time (master KBU in Austria, Dutch Open in Holland, as well as Barada camp in Slovenia). Approx. 550 starters from Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Czech republic and of course from Germany found the way to Ebern and fought in the different weight classes and disciplines for the title. Because of the good organization of the tournament it was finished at 8.00 pm, to one for all reasonable time. The SV 2000 Ebern had prepared the hall very well and there were enough assistants to succeed in the tournament. Many thanks also to the judges and referees who did a really great job.

We thank all participants for coming, the shown achievements and congratulate all winners rather warmly. We hope you had some fun and we may welcome you next year again in our tournament. You find the results under www.wako-deutschland.de/Ergebnisse/2014.html

Szeged 2014 report

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Published on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 21:51

Interview with  Mr. Ferenc Nèmet, Hungarian kickboxing federation board member  and main organizer of World cup in Szeged

Satisfied with results and competition

  These week end was reserved for Hungarian open tournament World Cup, where were gathered best fighters from Europe. We had three days of very good competition. 25 countries participated, 1100 fighters came these days in Szeged not to enjoy only in competition but also in this charming town.

Main impressions about the competition are:

    “We didn`t have much problems in organization, everything is going well. There are 120 fights in the rings daily. We  didn`t have one fight with complains for the result so we can see that judging is going fine. The fighters gave to public clean, good fights.

   We have  here the  best ring and tatami fighters, former World and European champions. They are testing their readyness for the upcoming World and European Championships.  Hungary brought here very good fighters and we expect from them a lot.

   We see in K1, hegemony of Belarus is still going on, they are here with very strong fighters. Very good Serbian fighters are here also.

   Unfortunately, concerning tatami sports, we don`t have Italian and Ireland team here.

   As for our fighters, this competition is for sure very good opportunity to select among them the best for upcoming Championships in Spain and Slovenia.

   We are very well supported from our government and Ministry of sports.

Mr. Richar Leyrer, Mr. Borislav Pelevic, Mr. Istvan Kiraly, Mr. Tamas Deutsch and Mr. Ferenc Nemet.

   Here  we have special guest, Mr. Tamás Deutsch a Hungarian politician and member of the European Parliament. He was member of the Hungarian Parliament between 1990 and 2009 and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports between 1999 and 2002.

   I have to stress that in our country, from a year ago, there are everyday sport activities for kids in elementary schools. I find it of great importance when  we discuss sport. “

Here is the link for the results:

http://kickbox.hu/_Eredmenyek/2014_Kick-box-VK_Szeged/2014-Szeged-K1.pdf

Complete image gallery is on this link

Yōkoso Dutch Open 2014

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Published on Saturday, 17 May 2014 09:48

On the 10th of May the Yōkoso Dutch Open 2014 took place in the Emergohal, Amstelveen. Over 720 entries from 18 countries took part in what is known as the friendly tournament. With some of the best organisation seen at any tournament using state of the art technology courtesy of Sportdata, entrants knew to the minute, the expected time for their fight to start. Scores and results went out online in real time so family and friends could stay up to date with how the competition from the comfort of their own home. Sportdata registered 1.900 unique visitors that were following the event on Liveblog. All together they had over 400.000 clicks, which means actual clicks or website renewals with a new scoring results. This numbers were obtained without most people even knowing that this was possible and without promoting this. Furthermore it was possible to capture 4 tatamis on video with the scores embedded in the video shoot. Hopefully this system will be adapted in more tournaments soon.

The tournament covered four aspects of kickboxing, point fighting, light continuous, traditional forms and musical forms and some of the best competitors from Europe were there to try to get on the podium. Ten tatamis were in use, two more than last year which, in conjunction with the computer system and the all of the WAKO referees present saw the event finish before 20:00. 

The day started off with light continuous, where the judges made use of electronic tablets to keep score and had names on the podium like Elijah Everill, Petar Zhivkov, Dale Bannister and Paulina Jarzmik, all well known names from WAKO World and European tournaments. The point fighting divisions made up the larger portion of entrants and again there was no shortage of well known fighters. In the juniors Joyce Poppe of Belgium and Elijah Everill from the UK took gold in two divisions each while in the seniors, Shannon Ryan, Evelyn Neyens, Tilen Zajc and Anatoli Kuschnir all managed to win double gold.

The highlight of the day, the adult grand champions divisions were last to take place  and saw Evelyn Neyens, Gemma Upfold, Maria Semenova and Monica Engeset make it to the semi finals of the ladies division. After two tough bouts, Semenova of Russia, and Engeset of Norway made it into the final where the Russians height and reach advantage proved too much for Monica, and Maria was crowned grand champion.

Tilen Zajc, already having won two divisions, along with Timmy Sarantoudis, Sean McCarthy and Carvin Burke were all in the semi finals of the mens division. Sean McCarthy, last years grand champion went into the final to face Zajc but was unable to defend his title successfully as the Slovenian was on top form all day and determined to take the title and the prize money.

This was the last year that the Yokoso Dutch Open will be a one day event as next year on the 11th and 12th of April, there will be most likely new divisions added to the event to include the ring sports, K-1.

View the highlights from the competition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzXN6_K1uDo and for a full list of results go to www.yokosodutchopen.com

We would like to once again thank all the referees, staff, crew, coaches and fighters that came to the Yōkoso Dutch Open to make this event a big success.

Danny Slevin (Brannmanndan) was there to capture everything on tape and special thanks to him for his amazing work.

Many thanks, hugs and kisses from Yokoso Dutch Open team.

The Friendly Tournament

Polish Open 2014

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Published on Thursday, 08 May 2014 17:26

Third Polish Open gathered 252 fighters from 39 clubs from Poland. Best fighter in ring discipline (forms) was Damiana Śpiewaka from Starachowic and best ring fighter was Klaudia Cichoń. Other  best fighters were: Mateusz Dymek, Ewę Pietrzykowską, Konrada Garncarczyka. Krynicki Jas-Pol club  won 33 medals (15 gold, 10 silver and 8 bronze).

All photo in gallery.

Link to event results

Edinburgh open 2014 report

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Published on Wednesday, 07 May 2014 13:51

The inaugural Edinburgh Open took place today with over 700 entries from 8 countries providing some world class competition. The day started off with one minutes applause for Jack Morley who passed away last week and will be missed by everyone that knew him. 

The competition started off with the team event consisting of 8 teams of 4 men and 1 woman. Team Adidas had enough to field 2 teams and both of them made it to the final with their first team winning. Jacey Cashman, Stevie Parker, David Firth and Chris Aston made up the team.

The ladies grand champion division was next up and some big names like Elaine Small, Shannon Ryan, Gaynor Morgan took to the tatami but it was Bev Sturzaker and Ina Grindheim in the final with Sturzaker winning.

The men’s grand champion division was next up and again it was full of world class competition, Chris Aston and David Firth, both of Team Adidas UK were in the final and Chris Aston took the title and the Edinburgh Open Grand Champion Sword as well as €200 prize money.

With 5 tatamis running all day, the junior divisions were crammed full of up and coming talent in both light contact continuous and point fighting styles. 

The advanced adults finished up what was a very successful first edition of this tournament and a great new addition to the WAKO calendar. Dates for next year have already been announced so make sure to keep the 3rd of May free next year so you can be part of the action in what will surely be a bigger and better event.  For a full list of results go to www.edinburghopen.com and as usual go to www.brannmanndan for the videos.

Congratulations to Kevin Baldwin, Natasha Walker and everyone in WAKO GB that helped make this tournament a success. 

Complete image gallery is on this link

Report and photo by Danny Slevin

8 Star - Oslo - report

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Published on Sunday, 04 May 2014 21:26

8 Star tournament in Oslo

Norway is taking a important position in full contact Kickboxing. With 11 strong countries participating, and using this tournament for qualification to WAKO championship this autumn, this seems to be the most important tournament for full contact in Europe.

The 8 Star Full Contact Kickboxing Tournament is finished and we had a great tournament with a lot of great fights. 
Big thanks to all the volunteers from Fighter Kickboxingklubb , Norway Kickboxing Federation, all the judges and referees, Mr. Sami Savo ( WAKO Ring Sport referee committee member) Mr. Thomas Steenberg , ( Norwegian Kickboxing Federation new President )and all participating 11 countries Brazil , Russia, Poland , Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Italy Germany , Ireland, Great Britain and Norway. They helped to finalize a professional event with good fights and high athletic level .

Over two days quality fighters have met and challenged each other in the ring. With prominent guests from the official Norway ringside and with good media coverage, this is the highlight of the year in Norwegian full contact.

Austrian Classics report

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Published on Thursday, 24 April 2014 17:55

To see all results and full list of all winners, see the following links.

Photo gallery thanks to  Mr. Michael Kruckenhauser
Photo gallery