The final evening of WAKO Kickboxing at the 2013 SportAccord World Combat Games involved the medal rounds for the three disciplines of low kick, full contact and point fighting. The finals took place October 25, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

FULL CONTACT

In the full contact contest, the women opened up the competition with Tonje Sorlie of Norway facing Thi Tuyet Nguyen of Vietnam. Nguyen was a determined fighter and had a good showing in the first round but Sorlie’s size wore Nguyen down. In rounds two and three, it was Sorlie with the measured hits that did the necessary damage to give her the win.

The first of the six Russians who advanced into the medal round was Sergei Lipinetc who faced the gregarious Hungarian, Gabor Gorbics in men’s -63.6kg full contact fighting. Gorbics came out of the gate swinging, delivering blows to the surprised Lipinetc. After the first round, Lipinetc was more prepared and started to land some clean and strategic hits. However, it was too late as Gorbics continued his strength moves and ended with the decision in his favor.

In -71kg men’s full contact, Nikita Selyanskiy of Russia and Ahmad Khalaf Hasan of Jordan spent the first round measuring each other out with Selyanskiy getting the advantage. After that, Selyanskiy ramped it up and started to deliver the blows needed to get the unanimous vote of the judges and the title.

The crowd was chanting loudly for both Eugen Waigel of Germany and Aleksandr Dmitrienko of Russia as the faced off for the -91kg men’s full contact battle. Dmitrienko landed some big blows and it seemed that Waigel just could not get anything started. A lot of clinching in the third round made it impossible for Waigel to mount any type of comeback as Dmitrienko brought home a second win to the Russians.

LOW KICK

The four low kick matches were another avenue of success for the Russians with three of their athletes winning the gold medal.

Anna Poskrebysheva started the Russians off with a resounding win over Zehra Gulgen of Turkey. Gulgen valiantly defended herself against Poskrebysheva’s massive blows but it was clear that the Russian was the dominate fighter and deserved the win.

Iraq’s Seyyedmasoud Derekeh faced Shamil Abdulmedzhidov of Russia for the title in the -67kg men’s low kick. Derekeh was holding his own in the first round but Abdulmedzhidov landed a side kick to Derekeh’s groin that downed the Iraqi fighter with extreme pain. The next two rounds were all Abdulmedzhidov as he fought his way to the gold medal.

Brazil’s Tadeu da San Martino found himself across from Khasan Khaliev in men’s -75kg low kick. Although da San Martino had the size, as with the rest of his teammates Khaliev had the speed and precision. Khaliev won the majority vote and was so excited, he threw some flips and trick kicks in the ring!

Men’s -81kg low kick was the final ring division of the night. The youthful Igor Emkic of Bosnia faced Turkey’s Serhat Degermenci. Degermenci was the bigger fighter and looked to be able to hold his own. Emkic landed a beautiful roundhouse to Degermenci’s head within the first minute and Degermenci dropped and received an eight-count. After that, it was clear that Degermenci was out on his feet and just trying to keep his hands off to ward off Emkic. When Degermenci went down for the second time, his coaches made the smart move and threw in the towel giving Emkic the title.

POINT FIGHTING

The final discipline of the night was point fighting. Three countries were remaining in the pool – Italy, Ireland and Hungary. Shauna Bannon started out her match gaining a 3-0 lead immediately forcing Gloria de Bei to play catch-up throughout the rest of the fight. Bannon didn’t sit and protect her lead, she also went after more points. Her strategy was successful as the match ended the third round with Bannon ahead 13-10.

Richard Veres of Hungary looked confident as he stepped into the ring to fight in the men’s -63kg point fighting finals. However, Veres was stymied by the counter fighting of Italy’s Adriano Passaro. When Veres went low, Passaro went high – and Passaro was getting the points. By the time Veres caught up, time was running out and the two went into a one minute overtime. But these evenly matched fighters ended the overtime tied, forcing a sudden death round where the first point scored would decide the match. Veres went low with a blitz again and Passaro went high with a back knuckle and the point was awarded to Passaro. The match ended with Passaro winning 10-9.

Mark McDermott of Ireland opened his fight with Hungarian Laszlo Gombos by taking the lead and keeping it through most of the first two rounds. Gombos stayed in the fight and finally got his chance with a clean 2-point head kick that gave him the lead in the third round. With only 17 seconds to go, McDermott found himself down by one and needing a point to stay in the game. McDermott waiting until the final seconds to spring but Gombos sensed the attack and countered with a side kick that scored. The match ended with Gombos the medal winner and a score of 9-7.

The adonis Robbie McMenamey of Ireland decided to use more offensive techniques that his usual “crab-like” defense. His decision turned out to be a good one as his blitzes were landing and scoring on Neri Stella of Italy. McMenamey’s one kick of the night caught Stella in the nether regions and McMenamey immediately returned to his blitzes which continued to be successful as he ended with a 12-6 score.

In the end, all three countries went home with a medal but it was Ireland who took home two golds from the evening.