At the end of 2009 during world armwrestling promoter – Igor Mazurenko’s stay in Athens (Greece) the meeting with one of the most talented athletes of the European Armwrestling Federation – Pantaley Filikidi took place.
Pantaley Filikidi is the athlete from Kazakhstan who has lived in Athens since 1997. He has already started his sports adventure with force sports in North Kazakhstan. When 1985 the federation (World Kettlebell Lifting – world official federation, associating 40 countries) of innovative sport, which is lifting the weights (commonly called “gira” in Russia) came into being. At the same time Filikidy as the one of the first participants of the federation started training and propagating the sport. He not only lifted the weights but was still the promoter of weightlifting. Since 1991 he has also started going in for armwrestling (as that year the new sports discipline which is Armwrestling came to Kazakhstan).
Today 58 years old Pantaley Filikidi set 20 world records of lifting the weight, which are still unbeaten. One of the record that belongs to him is the wrench of two 56kg weigh bound weights (112kg in all) with the little finger from the ground. The other record of the competitor is lifting the 50kg weigh 11 times with one hand sitting on a bench (legs do not touch the floor). Pantaley personally presented his skills in Vivon club in Athens. With no warm-up Kazakhstani-Greek competitor wrenched 90kg from the ground with the little finger. Quite good, isn’t it?
Filikidi has also almost equal successes on armwrestling field. At the first Kazakhstan Championships he ranked first in the discipline. Since that time he has regularly participated at armwrestling tournaments. In turn at the European Championships we saw this competitor for the first time in Check Republic in 2002. Since that time he has become the regular habitué of annual European and World Championships, simultaneously bringing with him quite numerous Greek Team. Until now he is the main trainer and activist of the Greek Armwrestling Federation.
In his Greek club Vivon he cultivates three sports disciplines: weightlifting, lifting the weight and Armwrestling. Until now he has brought up 40 World Champions of these three disciplines. Although he is now the habitant of Greece, his sports successes were awarded with the title of “Meritorious Kazakhstani Trainer” (having the title enables him getting 20% additional to his pension). In his club there are many competitors of different age. The oldest competitors of Pantaley’s club is 90 year old Greek (of Kazakhstani descent), who lifted 2 weights of 16kg each 20 times during our visit. And who said that “the olders cannot”?:)
