This situation raised a lot of excitement during the XXXV World Championships in Gdynia.
Vadim Akperov lost his match to Dawid Bartosiewicz. The competitors gripped up on the table several times on the day, and eventually it was Dawid who walked away victorious, which aroused great controversy among Russians.

Motivated to make it to the final, Vadim was in very good shape, but lost to Dawid Bartosiewicz because of fouls - says Anton Gorin in his text on ru.armpower.net. - Our athlete met with Dawid in the semifinals. It was a tough and fierce battle that saw fouls given to both athletes. While attacking Dawid lifted his elbow and got a second foul which meant it was Vadim who would get to the final. However, Poland made a protest, which was rejected, though. It seemed obvious that Vadim would fight in the final.

According to Anton Gorin Vadim left the hall and got into the car as he wanted to go back to the hotel. But he was stopped by his team at the last minute.

They shouted that Bartosiewicz’s protest was accepted and there would be a rematch - says Gorin. - We were all confused. How come this happened? When both competitors faced each other on the table again Vadim blocked Dawid. The referee stopped the match and declared Bartosiewicz’s win. It came to everyone as a shock! Why it was Dawid who won? The referee showed that Vadim raised his elbow at a height of almost 15 cm. All of our competitors shouted as they disagreed with the verdict. Further protests were rejected.

Why? We do not know.

Russians know only one thing: it was Dawid Bartosiewicz who made it to the finals with their competitor taking third place. In the conclusion of his article, Anton suggests that the outcome of the match could have been affected by the fact that the referee was a Pole. This theory, however, was questioned by Igor Mazurenko, the organizer of the championship during which this highly controversial match occurred.

During the last confrontation between Vadim and Dawid the Polish referee was accompanied by the WAF head referee, Leonid Harkles – says Mazurenko. – It was Harkles who showed with his fingers the distance between Vadim’s elbow and the pad. In this case, there were no grounds to justify the protest made by Russians. I saw this particular match, too. Yes, Vadim is the champion of Russia, but it was a world championship, and Dawid Bartosiewicz was in very good shape, so it was an evenly matched battle. I only regret that the match has not ended with one competitor pinning his opponent’s hand to the pad.

Gorin is hoping that it will be possible to view the videos of the matches between Dawid and Vadim.

We will see who was really stronger and worthy of entering the final - says Gorin.

However, it seems that the Russian fans know everything without viewing the videos.

It’s sad - briefly commented the article AlexGri
I am shocked at what I saw, it was not funny - adds Rustan Badalov.

What do you think about this case?

Iza Małkowska