Knockdown Results

The 2nd International ‘Yamburg Cup’

This bi-annual event held in Russia was moved from the gas settlement Yamburg in the artic circle to the city of  Novy Urengoy where the sponsors Gazprom. Our hosts paid for all the teams to travel from Moscow to Novy Urengoy and all expenses during the stay and put on a very well run, professional event. Thee were 12 countries participating mainly from the IFK but there were also competitors from Shinkyokushin Kyrgistan and IKO1.

Lightweight  -70KG

The lightweights kicked off the event with the technican of the tournament Almazbek taking only 20secs to dispatch his Uzbekistan opponent. The Shin fighter knocked out Buranov with a left leg chudan mawashi, left tobi ushiro mawashi combo which set the tone for the day.

Russian favourite Alexander Afanasiev the 2006 champion was next up and cruised to victory in the first round against the Belorussian to set up a last eight clash with the Bulgarian Venev.

2004 British Champion Kostenko came through a tough scrap with Mozzherin of Kazakstan to set up a fight against the winner of Almazbek and Alan Shnawa GB.

In an interesting first round the Krygistan fighter from Shinkyokushin through lots of chudan mawashi’s and knees but Shnawa counted well and almost caught the Shin fighter with an excellent roll kick. Half way through the 2nd round with nothing in it Almazbek dropped Shnawa with a lightning Jodan Mawashi through his guard to gain an ippon.

In the bottom half of the draw Evgeniy Solomennikov Russia defeated Akhmedov of Uzbekistan by waza ari and Roberto Proost Begium defeated his Turkmenistan opponent in 3 rds.

Crawley’s Darren Stringer beat Kasimov Krygistan by disqualification late into the 2nd round. Stringer was on top punishing the Shinkyokushin fighters back leg with low kicks and finally the Belorussian Bortnik beat Chitanava, Azerbaijan.

The quarter finals saw Afanasiev beat Venev and Kostenko come through a battle with Almazbek who showed he was not just a technician with a gutsy display losing in 3 rds.

Proost lost in 4 minutes to Solomenikov and Stringer eased into the semi’s with a one round decision.

The Tameshiwari was next with all 4 fighters failing different breaks and it was clear the stands holding the wood were too high. Afanasiev was the best with 11 boards in  3 breaks.

In the first semi it was a token effort with Kostenko folding to an innocuous technique giving Afansiev an passage.

Bout number two was a tense affair with Stringer not being able to make a dent in Solomenikov and the Russian went through on boards.

In the 3rd place fight off the now refreshed Kostenko took the fight to Stringer who moved and countered well. As the bout went through the 2nd rd Kostenko hit Stringer 3 times in the throat or face to incur a genten warning and at the end of the round Stringer won by majority decision.

With two Russians in the final Afanasiev pulled out giving victory to Solomenikov.

1st Evgeniy Solomennikov Russia
2nd Alexander Afanasiev Russia
3rd Darren Stringer Great Britain
4th Vladimir Kostenko Russia

Middleweight 70 to 80KG

The Middleweight saw  Sergi Malutin of Krygistan IKO1 defeat his Belorussian opponent then Olusegun Odunukan GB have a  tough scrap with Andrey Borisov Russia losing on a split decision after 6 minutes.

The other 1st round preliminaries saw two 6 minute decisions won by Hristov Bulgaria and Fanil Mazhitov beat the game Kazak fighter Odintsov.

Then the fastest knock out of the day was won by Philippe De Puydt with a gyaku tsuki in about 6 seconds against his Ukrainian opponent.

The last 8 saw the 2004 World Cup winner Andrey Noskov from Russia lock horns with Malutin from Krygistan and after 3 grueling rounds Malutin took a split decision to set up a semi final against Borisov who dropped the Bulgarian Stovanov with a chudan mawashi geri.

Wai Cheung had to dig deep to defeat Hristov in 6 mins and Mazhitov squeezed past the tenacious the Belgium DePuydt.

In the Tameshiwari Cheung easily broke more than the rest with 11 boards.

Borisov tore into the clearly injured Malutin and won within one round to win the first semi final.

Cheung knew he only had to go to boards to win  and worked strong punch and inside low kick combinations which seemed to be hurting the Russian Mazhitov but to his credit he kept moving forward. At the end it seemed pretty even but 3 of the judges felt Mazhitov’s pressure was enough to secure a final placing.

In what was probably the toughest scrap of the day the 3rd place fight off seesawed back and forth for 4 hard rounds. Malutin somehow managed to shake of his injuries to stand toe to toe with Cheung and in the 3rd round seemed to gain control. Cheung however had other plans and came back with 4 and 5 punch combinations finishing with a low kick each time to break Malutins resistance and take a unanimous judges decision.

Cheung was awarded the trophy ofr the most spirited fighter and Malutin picked up the sponsors award.

Once again the middleweight final was two Russians but Mazhitov was in no condition to fight so Andrey Borisov took the title.

1st Andrey Borisov Russia
2nd Fanil Mazhitov Russia
3rd Wai Cheung Great Britain
4th Sergey Malutin Krygistan

Heavyweight +80KG

The Heavyweight category was a battle of big versus little with the 101 kg Russian Karshigeev maul the Ukrainian Osyka.

Then former Spanish Champion Sergey Pavlov showed how well he can move for a big man when in close range he skipped back and hit Ginda from Azerbaijan with a front hand shita tsuki to drop him for an ippon.

The 80kg inexperienced Malyi from Ukraine showed good resistance before folding to the vastly experienced and 30kg heavier former Russian, British and Dutch champion Alexander Ibragimov and the colossus 122kg Zhydko rushed at the former middleweight Stefan Hofer from Switzerland who although giving away 37 kg only to be dropped for a waza ippon by low kicks within 40secs.

Ibragimov was the best heavyweight at breaking and won the trophy for the Tameshiwari with 14 boards.

Pavlov took full advantage of the fact Karshigeev had damaged his hand breaking and kept his taller opponent at the wrong distance to use his leverage to secure a place in the final.

Ibragimov then showed his class winding Hofer with a body punch for a waza ari but Hofer didn’t give up and lasted the round before losing on the flags.

Again there was a titanic struggle for 3rd place with the huge Karshigeev 16 kg heavier and about 30cm taller doing all he could to knock Stefan Hofer out but the Swiss fighter hung in until the last round where he took the fight to the Russian and stood toe to toe to the bell.

The judges were split 2-2 and chief referee Shihan Andrey Bura gave the decision for Hofer.

The final saw comrades and friends Sergey Pavlov and Alexander Ibragimov battle for 4 rounds with nothing in it and neither man getting on top for any length of time but at the end the judges went for the workrate and footwork of Pavlov.

1st Sergey Pavlov Russia
2nd Alexander Ibragimov Russia
3rd Stefan Hofer Switzerland
4th Alexander Karshigeev Russia

As a special feature of this tournament the podium finishers won gold as a prize with the 1st place receiving 250 grams, 2nd place 150 grams and 3rd place 100 grams.

2006 World Cup IKO3 - Australia - November 06

Darren Stringer Lightweight - 1st Place World Champion

Darren wins the final by Ippon downing Kanat Rakhimov (Kazakhstan) with a punch to the chest.

Darren won his first fight against a South African with ippon by Gedan Mawashi Geri (low kick) in this event with no shin pads . He then defeated Imre Gyarmati of Hungary by decision after sustaining a broken nose by elbow. The semi final saw him take another decision against Japanese Aussie Masayuki Sakamoto.

The final started poorly for Darren when the impressive Rakhimov came out of the blocks fast with a good jodan mawashi and was on top for the first 90 seconds hurting Darren to the body but Darren turned the fight around with inside low kicks to the back leg that had the Kazak fighter limping by the end of the round. Early in  the extension Darren fired another strong low kick combo finishing with a punch high on the chest to gain the victory.

2004 Regional Knockdown, Llantrisant - Wales - 5th June 2004

It was another tournament with a high level of fighting and enthusiasm showed by all fighters taking part.

Fighters from Crawley performed exceptionally well too entering 2 fighters in the novice lightweight section and 1 fighter in the open heavyweights.

Matt Underwood (5th Kyu) fought first from Crawley against the eventual 2nd place winner and forced an extension of an extra 2 minutes in what proved to be the fight of the day upto that point. He lost on a decision but was ultimately awarded the most spirited fighter of the day.

James Underwood (4th Kyu) gained a bye in the first round and came up against Mohamed Ageli in the second round. Mohamed's experience gained him the decision after an extension and the defeat in this round earned James joint 3rd place in the Category.

Richard Casella (Shodan) fought his first Open category fight today having completed all of his Novice fights and and came up against Paul Travers. Richard landed a Jodan Mawashi Geri but Paul was unphased. After an extention of this semi-final bout, Paul was declared the winner and Richard gained a joint 3rd place.