On the 23rd and 24th of June 2010 in Belgium (the 23rd July – left hand rivalry, the 24th – right hand rivalry) the international tournaments – Rochefort 2010 took place. They were the 19th international armwrestling struggles. Competitors from 13 countries: France, Switzerland, Sweeden, Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Check Republic, England, Italia, Spain, Hungary, Belgium the hosts and five people team from Poland: Bartosz Jakubowski (Zloty Orzeł Choszczno), Wiesław Rzanny (Traktor Wolsztyn), Łukasz Obłuski (Złoty Tur Gdynia), Marcin Zbylut and Ukrainian competitor representing our country Jurij Łubianki (competitors of  Steelarm Wrocław). Below there is a short account of one of the participants – Bartosz Jakubowski from z Choszczno:

Let’s start with the left hand rivalry. Jurij Łubiankin took part in Senior 70kg class for left hand. Although he had an extreme will to fight he did not manage to win any duels.
4 Poles:  , Wiesiu, Łukasz and Marcin took part in Senior 85kg left hand class. It was the most stuffed class of the left hand rivalry (27 competitors started). Unfortunately  in spite of intentions to win Marcin Zbylut and Łukasz Obłuski were far away from the podium (Marcin did not win any fights and Łukasz won only one).

Wiesław Rzanny and I did much better In the direct rivalry. I finally was 5th and Wiesiu after great fights ranked second. On the same day the disabled Open right hand class was carried out. There after beating the Hungarian Champion in semi-final and the French Champion in the cup-final I won the gold medal and stood on the highest step of the podium.

The next day was the right hand struggles. In Senior 70kg class Jurij did not improve his result from the previous day and finally ranked far away from the podium. But then in 85kg class the Poles played the part. Although Marcin Zbylut did not achieve much in the weight class, Łukasz Obłuski and Wiesiu Rzanny after very stiff fights met in the semi-final. Here the competitors from Gdynia turned to be better. Additionally Łukasz beat the competitor from France twice and thereby stood on the highest step of the podium. The next two medals went to the hands of the Polish competitors (Łukasz Obłuski - gold, Wiesław Rzanny – brown).

So we came back home with 4 medals: 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 brown medal. Next year there will be the 20th competitions in Rochfort for which we have already been invited by the organizers. We hope that next year we will also be able to participate in it and we will come home with more medals.

Armpower redaction would like to congratulate out national team such successful starts at the Belgian armwrestling tournaments.