Today was a busy day for athletes at the muaythai world championships as the morning kicked off with the 2018 Athletes Forum, and then a packed day of competition which saw the top athletes move closer to gold.

In the women’s divisions the big teams of Finland, Sweden, Russia and Turkey dominated the lists. But individuals like Bui Yen Ly from Vietnam who took an exciting points win and Nili Block from Israel also left their mark.

Among the new faces to move onto the next round was Sabina Mazo from Colombia, just 21 and at her first Worlds, she is determined to stay in the competition as long as possible. Other stand-out wins were for The World Games champion Sofia Olofsson (sweden) and Yadrung “Chomanee” Tehiran (Thailand), and the 2017 World Cup champion Juliette Lacroix.

Mexico continued their strong results, showing the impact of increased investment and development in the past 12 months leading up to the tournament. Mariana Rainirez Sachez defeated the Ukrainian champion Oleksandra Pecheniuk and Paulo Jacqueline Gonzalez defeated Rudzma Abubakar from The Philippines who was last year’s Youth World Champion.

In the men’s divisions, the Latin American teams of Honduras, Peru, Brazil and Colombia were all in action today. The UAE also had a solid showing at their first tournament, with Illyas Habibi taking a solid win towards the end of the day. The smaller team from the UK also had a good day with both Natty Dodds and Liam McGrandles advancing  – with their two team-mates also still in the running.

You can follow the bouts of Team France on their daily Youtube updates here. 

The last two bouts of the day were in the heavyweight divisions with Oleh Pryimachov, the 2016 world champion taking the win for Ukraine and Gadzhi Medzhidov adding another Russian name to the next day’s competition. At the other end of the divisions, both Arnon Phonkrathnok – defending world champion at 51kg and Aphichet Nakkaeo at 48kg went through for Thailand.

Keep up with live results on IFMA LIve, and follow IFMA on social media for behind-the-scenes updates:

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