The last day of the EMF European Championships came, and The World Games mascots Hansel and Gretel were determined to be there.
It’s been a busy week for the adventurous pair as they toured the beautiful city of Split in Croatia. They’ve been learning about muaythai, and even hopped over the ropes to try it out for themselves.
They started the day in a beautiful park by the marina. Some of the athletes were running there, but Gretel said they were a little tired after their muaythai lesson. Instead they admired the view before meeting some teams at the hotel.
They’re both from Wroclaw in Poland, host city to The World Games 2017, so naturally they headed straight for Poland. The athletes were relaxing on the terrace, and they all hung out chatting about training.
By the time the pair met Sweden, you can see Hansel was a little tired; one of the coaches was happy to be his sofa for a while. Gretel is made of sterner stuff, and she led the way to the Gripe Arena.
As they are not the tallest VIP guests IFMA has ever hosted, we thought the intrepid duo should sit as close to the ring as possible – right next to the judges’ table. They stayed for all 14 bouts as the athletes competed for a place at The World Games 2017, and were very popular with our referees because of their loud cheering for the winners. They were especially excited to hear the announcer call the names of gold medal winners who will travel to Wroclaw!
Towards the end of the day, Hansel kept looking at our Technical Director as if he wanted to ask a question. Finally, after Gretel nudged him so hard he nearly fell off their chair, he whispered they’d like to be on the podium. He said it looked like a lot of fun.
Not a problem! Over they went to the red carpet area, and starting with Poland they got to experience the buzz of being a muaythai champion. They posed for a photograph with organizer Branko Cikitac too.
And of course they also got to meet the Russian team. Our next qualifying event for The World Games 2017 is in the city of Kazan on November 20th. Galina Popova who will represent Russia at the Games showed them her gold medal and said she will guide them around Kazan.
So even though we’re very sad to say goodbye to the loveable pair after having so much fun together, we’re looking forward to all meeting up again in a few weeks in Kazan!
