Sporting spirit defines the week of action
PATTAYA — After a week of non-stop action, it was time for the grand finalé of the the FISU World University Muaythai Championship, with nine divisions up for grabs on Sunday, 29 July.
There were four women’s bouts, with medals going to universities in Estonia, Turkey, Israel and Thailand. Current world champion Nili Block of Israel claimed another gold for herself with a comprehensive win over newcomer Alejandra Romero.
After the bout, Nili said, “I feel like I did what I came here to do, I have a FISU medal and it feels great. Now I’m going to take a month off and recuperate, physically and mentally.” She celebrated with the Israeli tourists among the crowd, who were overjoyed to have her in their midst.
Silver medalist Alejandra, a student of international politics said, “A year ago Nili was my hero, now she’s my rival. This was just my 10th fight so facing the world champion was like a dream for me.”
Another Spanish athlete, Laura De Blas won silver in the 54kg division, with gold going to another exciting new face on the Muaythai podiums – Andra Aho, representing the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences. Andra said: ”I’m feeling great now, it’s amazing to win. It was really exciting to come here and win for my school, it’s something different.”
Three of the men’s bouts ended in the tightest of scores, at 29 to 28 points, which meant even more entertainment for the spectators. Nick Sviadomski of the Belarusian National Technical University won gold in a high-octane fight against Russian Mark Valovich of St Petersburg’s National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health.
Sitting next to each other after the fight, Nick said, “It was a great fight, Mark was great and I really feel happy now,” while Mark added “Of course I also feel great, just great.“
A fantastic end to what was indeed, a fantastic week.
The sporting spirit displayed by the student athletes was inspirational. Stephan Fox, General Secretary of IFMA – the Muaythai governing body – said: “This was an amazing week of Muaythai, the standard was so high in the finals you could take any bout and put them into our World Championships. The atmosphere was special at this event, something unique happened here. We look forward to seeing these young athletes continue their journey to the stars.”
All results from the final day can be found here. You can catch the entire week’s action from the 1st edition of the World University Muaythai Championship on FISUTV and get full results on www.ifmamuaythai.org.
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