245 competitors gathered yesterday (13 April 2011) in the Ukrainian armwrestling capital  - Kharkov at the 17th  Ukrainian Seniors' Championships to compete for the title  of the Champion of Ukraine and the right to start of this year's European Championships - Turkey 2011 and World Championships - Kazakhstan 2011.

In fact, Ukrainian Championships began in several weeks ago. As we had already got to know the names of the Champions of Ukraine of juniors, masters and disabled classes as the competitions in these age classes had took place in the Ukraine a long time ago). Yesterday the senior left hand rivalry was held. Today, the rivalry continues on right hand.

There is no secret that from year to year the interest in the results of the annual Ukrainian Championships is growing among the activists, competitors and fans of the whole armwrestling world. The fact that the Ukrainian representation has long occupied the team medal place at World and Ukrainnian Championships makes competitors from other countries reckon with the armwrestling power of the world and want to know who they will really have to face with at the European or world competitions.

Over the last 17 years we have had many great competitors of Ukrainian armwrestling. Some of them can confidently be called Ukrainian armwrestling legends. These include such names as: the Babayevs (Sniezana, Ruslan and Rustam), Taras Ivakin, Alexey Semerenko, Dymitry Nikonov, Dymitry Bezkorovaily, Andrey Pushkar etc. Of course, some of these legendary masters will also appear at this year's Championships of Ukraine. So let's write something of the most important ones.

After the first day of the 17th Championships of Ukraine we have already known the best players for the left hand. Among them there is Artem Tainov from the Crimea, who easily won the 80kg class. And although Artem had to lose a few extra pounds so that the could start in the 80kg class, in the result he had enough strengh to get the gold medal of the championships.

 "Artem this year plans to start at the World Cup in Poland and Professionals at the World Championships in Kazakhstan. However the most significant test for him will be the Professionals' World Cup" - told us in a telephone conversation Artem's promoter -Andrey Sharkov.

Second place behind Artem went to Roman Rudnicki from Lwów. He's an experienced comeptitor who had trained with Grygory Bondaruk a few years ago. It is worth mentioning that the 80kg class is Rustam Babayev's key one. However, for the good starts at the European and World Championships Rustam and his sister - Sniezana were exempted from the starts and automatically entered into the National Team in 2011.

In the 85 kg class Ievgenii Prudnyk reigned. Although at last year's Professionals' World Cup - Nemiroff World Cup - Sopot 2011 he did not rached a medal place (4th on the left and 10th on the right hand in the 86kg class), among his colleagues he raises enormous respect. The more that in his weight class took off as many as 28 competitors. So the rivalry was so very hard.

The younger brother of Rustam - Ruslan Babev won the 90 kg class without any difficulty. We still remember the times where Ruslan started in the 65kg class. Today, he put on weight, gained strength and now he confidently copes with the 90kg class.

In the up to 100 kg class, the first place went to a competitor from the Crimea, a ward of Andrey Sharkov - Sergey Chindiasov. During the final fight in a very mached duel he won a fouls with Gela Khubiashvili. The new star of the 100kg class in being born, isn't it? Third place in this class was occupied by Taras Ivakin, who returned to fighting after a long break in trainings.

"I returned to armwrestling after a long break in trainings, and now I can clearly see that the one who, started to wrestle professionally at least once and had a break, always has a desire to return. I am sure I do not want to compete in lighter categories any more. To tare up in 100kg class at this year's Ukrainian Championships I had lose 5kg. I lost on the left hand because I had been long suffering from pain in my hand. At present, it requires a surgery, but unfortunately I can not afford it. But the right hand is 100% efficient and you will see what I can really do" - said  Taras Ivakin in a telephone conversation.

Armpower editors got to know that Taras intends to start at this year's Professionals' World Cup in Poland with the body weight of at least 110kg. No one has yet seen such Taras.  His starts weight has long been within the range of 90-95kg. Even in the famous duel with John Brzenk in Ukraine in 2005, Taras weighed barely 95kg.

In the 110kg class, a favorite was Sergey Tokarev. Ultimately the favorite did not disappointed us, and easily won the gold medal of the championships.

The king of the super-heavy class: over 110kg became Andrey Pushkar. This titan from Tarnopol, the face of dietary supplements and nutrients for athletes of the Polish FitMax brand, easily won a duel after a duel, and no competitor of these championships made a decent resistance.

So we already know the best of the best of the Ukrainian armwrestling for the left hand in 2011. Now we are looking forward the right hand rivalry (14th April 2011).