At the end of the muaythai World University Championships special awards were given out to athletes who stood out for their sporting skills, and also to athletes who showed the true muaythai spirit and character in some way during the event. These awards are separate to the medals which are won in the ring.

The first award was for Best Team which went to the Thai students for taking home six gold medals  – five in the men’s divisions and one for Yadrung “Chomanee” Teahiran in the women’s division. Most of these atheltes study at the Institute of Physical Education in Bangkok. Yadrung said they were very proud to represent their colleges and do so well at the tournament.

Best Team to students from Thailand

The Best Boxer (male) award went to gold medal winner Nick Sviadomsky from Belarus, representing the Belarusian National Technical University. He came through two earlier rounds, and then faced another top athlete in the finals. The final score was 29 to 28 after an exciting bout where Nick used his teep -kick to great effect, but also firing  in kicks to the upper body and following with impressive hand combinations.

Best Boxer male to Nick Sviadomsky

Next up was Nili Block from Israel (above top) representing The Interdisciplinary Centre who was given the Best Boxer (female award). She also competed three times, taking clear wins in each round. Nili is very strong in the ring, using that especially in the clinch but also showing great skill with high kicks and working well on the outside of the ring.

The gold medal winner from Poland Lukasz Radosz at 86kg for the Poznań University of Economics was given the Best Sportsmanship award for how he behaved in the ring towards his opponents, always respectful.

Best Sportsmanship to Lukasz Radosz

And the gold medal winner at 75kg Aleksei Fedotov representing the Irkutsk State Technical University was given a special award for Fair Play again for how he behaved in the ring towards his opponents and their coaches.

Separately to the athletes some small mementos were given to the people working hard behind the scenes especially the people on the local organising committee who worked so hard to make this well-organised and friendly tournament possible.

You can watch back the action from the muaythai WUC on IFMA Youtube and also on FISU.net