Twenty-four bouts were held today with medals going a-begging across male and female bouts, as well as spots in the eleven World Games weight divisions
The winning athletes entered the arena led by a parade of women dressed in traditional Croatian dress, and received their medals from a variety of local and international dignitaries – followed of course by a rush for the ultimate selfie!
But first the fights. Starting at 3pm in two rings, Belarus’ Alena Liashkevich took on Russian Vera Negodina. And in Ring B Javier Ruiz from Spain faced Alperen Turan Aris from Turkey in the male B division.
In the women’s bouts the Swedish team pulled off two golds and a silver, in a echo of their standout performance at the World Championships. And three gold medals for the Russian women.
One bout at 71kgs was a reprise of a WC final with Anna Standberg, Sweden facing Anna Tarasova from Russia. A close fight, this time the win went to the Russian boxer.
Sweden’s Patricia Axling didn’t have things all her own way at 57kgs against Hungary’s Judit Laura. Axling worked a steady stream of left-right straight punches followed immediately by sharp knees, turning the resulting grapple to her advantage. But in round two when Laura forced space between them using teep-kicks to the leg and body she seemed to be making up the ground. However, Axling did enough to stay ahead, taking it on points.
In ring B a great fight in the men’s between Germany’s Dmid Safdari and Sweden’s Johan Andersson at 81kgs. Safdari pressed forward with low leg-kicks and fast hand combinations, but Andersson ran a tight defence, holding it ahead for the points win. And then exuberantly kicking his mouth-guard neatly through the ropes out on near his trainers!
Medals day are bitter-sweet as it means the tournament is coming to an end, but as any athlete will tell you – these days are what the hard training and sacrifices are all about.
Full results as always on this website.
Tomorrow is another full day with 14 finals across men Elite level and women’s – we look forward to see who will join our already-qualified athletes at The World Games in the summer!
