Igor Mazurenko “Report on 2012 World Championships in Sao Vincente (Brazil)”

Let me start with congratulating Assen Hadjitodorov on being elected the new President of the WAF. It was his great achievement, especially at the time when Fred and Willy tried as hard as they could to discredit Assen, even coming into the EAF conference to tell everyone about the so-called letter of complaint signed by 16 European countries.

But it turned out that they weren’t able to show the letter and could not tell people exactly what was in it or who had signed it?

When Fred had left Assen asked the delegates of the 24 national federations in the meeting who had signed it and what complaint they had?

Only the representatives of two national federations said they had signed it and the only complaint was from Petra Spatz who said the EAF should have a financial director.

So Assen asked Petra if she nominated someone to be financial director during the earlier election this year?

Her answer was- NO!

The next question was: ‘Have you ever made a proposal to the EAF to institute a financial director?

Petra Said- NO!

So, if there weren’t such kind of proposal or a nomination, what you are complaining about?

Petra did not answer at all

Despite Fred’s allegations, there weren’t any other complaints.

So, if there weren’t any other controversial issues, Assen said that to resolve the situation the financial director should be elected at the next EAF congress. And each national federation should send in their nominations in the regular way.

To this day, we haven’t managed to get a copy of that letter, so no one has been able to see it signed by sixteen national federations.

Organizational remarks about the arrangements during the competition

The beginning of the contest was really bad. A lot of people had to wait up to 6 hours for transport from the airport to the hotel, and most people were in a different hotels during the first night. It’s a pity that no one had told them and no one knew what was going on, and many people lost a lot of sleep not getting their rooms till very late.

Then there were the hotel prices that were much too expensive for the standard. The general secretary Willy Deneumositer was standing in the reception saying nothing more than (what he can do) when people complained (in our opinion it’s his job and his obligation ).

The tables

Once again the referee panel had not been able to inspect all the tables in advance and the organizers did not keep the rules of WAF because they had not brought tables produced by MAZURENKO EQUIPMENT.

(Fred and Willy let the wrestlers down again) so the elbow pads and touch pads had to be modified, but the end result was that some elbow pads had a different amount of foam padding than others, so you could have been pulling on one pad in the heats and on another in the finals. This would not be acceptable in any serious sport.

The competition started 5 hours late the first day. Why? We know there were the usual mistakes on the draw sheets and badges but 5 hours- it’s unacceptable?

And of course it was late starting each next day.

The stage set-up was not good, it was too small, too high and had only one access ramp for the competitors, but worst of all was the competitors’ area, because they could not see what was going on and no screen had been provided to show the wrestling.

There were whole weight classes that simply disappeared in the disabled section and so many other things were wrong that it is hard to count.

This is not just my point of view. Please look at the official letters of complaint from Sweden and Turkey (Turkish national disabled team) below.

The Official Complaint of Sweden

Things to change until the next world championships:

Table positions on a stage, new tables on the back are difficult or impossible to see for audience;

Lights on a stage should not be directed to the audience;

The organizers shouldn’t give any permission to “extra-attractions” like engagements, marriages and singing to birthdays, this is not a birthday party;

All tables must be prepared two days before the competition start.

Absolutely no 5 hours delays after competition start;

Tables should be fixed properly to the stage floor;

Start lists should be prepared in the same morning before the competition start – not after competition;

No people on stage except for competitors and referees;

The area below stage: only for trainers and accredited photographers;

Hotels and competition venue should be within max 15 minutes walking distance;

Time schedule should be posted at hotels and competition venue;

The organizers have to keep time schedule!

The organizers have to guarantee selling of food. Waiting 1 hour for fast food like hamburgers is unacceptable;

All staff at hotel receptions and at competition venues should speak English and Russian.

The organizers have to deliver the appropriate amount of training tables for competitors before matches;

Waiting 5 hours for competition start (the 1st day) is not acceptable – then the championship will be considered a joke;

The Backstage area should be only for competitors. Separate areas- should be given for each tables/classes;

Referees shouldn’t block audience the view of the tournament;

All national anthems should be prepared before the competition start.

There should be presented all names of competitors on podium, not only the names of their countries.

The programs and names of companies- sponsors, along with preliminary starting lists and time tables should be delivered to audience and spectators on time.

It should be live on web:

The organizer should guarantee live coverage on the net and promise before the competition that competitions can be seen at the web!

The official Turkish disabled team complaint, signed by its manager Ayse Batmaz

The Turkish disabled team is very well organized and the team manager sent in the list of competitors and their weight classes into the WAF/organizers 1 month ahead of the competition.

They went to the team registration with all necessary documents which were checked and all payments made and the form signed.

The Turkish disable competitors went to weigh in and they were all weighed in, in accordance with the form and put into their respective weight classes all of their passports copied and everything was confirmed. At no point there was anything mentioned about a change in the ladies classes or any of the classes not being held.

On the 1st day of competition when the competitors ID badges were given out 2 of the disabled ladies weight classes has disappeared and only 2 out of 4 were being organized instead of 60kg, 70kg, 80kg and 80+kg, they were only organized 60kg and 60+kg classes.

When Eda Saltan - lady-competitor from the 70kg disabled weight class asked Willy (The General Secretary of WAF) about what had happened to the other 2 classes and she explained that the forms had been submitted ahead of the competition. So how can it happened that 4 classes had been combined to 2 classes. Willy told her that the original package was sent via e-mail to all of the countries and then a modified package was sent out to the countries with the changes at a later date.

The Turkish disabled Federation called to their office to ask them to check and then they received the confirmation that no further e-mail had been received showing any amendments at all.

Eda Saltan spoke to Lise Blanchard who was aware of the mistake. Lise said to her “We have made a terrible mistake and we have to fix it”, she said that she would have a meeting with her team to see how it could be resolved.

Willy returned and was unbelievably rude to Lise, he told her that he had sent the modifications to the countries, he was very aggressive with her and said “am I a liar”? Then he said that he had sent the modifications out but he could not send them to the Turkish Federation because there was another federation in Turkey.

He told her that is was her teams responsibility to check that were no mistakes the same as Russia had and that Russia was aware of the mistake?? He was totally aggressive and rude to her, he told her she could find the information on the website. Willy told her “I have done many things for the Turkish team but now forget it, I will not do it again” so she left and was scared and started crying.

Eda talked to Mircea and Mircea showed Willy the passport copies and told him the situation, then Willy said that Assen had sent out the modified package however Romania checked their records and they had not received any modified package from Willy, the Host Country or Assen.

Also in the Junior disabled weight classes there were at least 3 classes that only had 1 competitor in and the competitor was still awarded the medal in the award ceremony, none of the classes were combined in these cases, this meant that Russia was very successful in these circumstances.

I have not even included the Romanian report that has more complaints, because I had to stop somewhere talking about the organization of this championships. The end result is just about everything that was not good and it is hard to find something good to say about it, so I will end by saying that this time the wrestlers were bringing the highest level of Armwrestling to our World once more.

Yours in Armwrestling

Igor Mazurenko