Much of the discussion after the Nemiroff has been surrounding the heavy weights, the dramatic and spectacular development between Pushkar, Cyplenkov and Chaffee. It is a shame really, because there is generally much more to be learned from the far superior arm wrestling in the lighter weight classes. The skill and diversity there is in my opinion light years ahead of what is seen among the heavies. The beauty of the arm wrestling brought to the table by Zoloev, Prudnik, Gasparini, Ongorbaev and a few more surpasses anything the heavy weights had to show.

But let me for a moment focus on what´s on everybody’s mind. In all honesty, let us remember that Denis Cyplenkov did in the end win the right arm category, after forcing and winning the rematch. That seems to have been forgotten in some discussions. Chaffey beat Cyplenkov once and came undefeated to the final, but lost it there. And the fact is that Cyplenkov had to work much harder for his wins in the right arm than the left arm which, I am sad to say, was turned into a joke by all who would not pull. The only “match” we saw in the left was the final, which reminds us about another good thing about Prudnik. He leaves his acting in the theatre. In the right, Cyplenkov actually was challenged by both Modestas Grigaitis and Tim Bresnan, and could very well have lost to one of them as well.

Could Pushkar have beaten Cyplenkov? If he had tried instead of giving him the match when Cyplenkov had been challenged by Grigaitis and Bresnan I think so. It is a shame we will not know because he decided to be a trader instead of a sportsman. But it is unfair to blame only the heavy weights. The same behavior was seen in the ladies -52, where all excitement was removed by the Kazak ladies who in the same way refused to pull against each other in the qualifiers, and instead cheated their Russian opponent out of a fair chance. So it seems it is not a matter of an individual, but a structural problem. I don’t know if it is the prize money, the reward you receive in your own country for bringing home a title or something else that is the problem. But because of this something it has become more important to get a medal/prize than to arm wrestle for it.

The open category is truly great entertainment, but that is all it is. It tells us nothing of who is the best, because all have competed earlier in the day, a different amount of matches, at different levels of difficulty. Planning for it should not be allowed to destroy the ordinary categories, which would really tell us something.

Maybe the prize money should be removed from the Open, and let it be for fun, like it should be?

The prize money could be left to the ordinary weight categories, and maybe then we will see everybody do their best there.

The Nemiroff is by far the greatest arm wrestling show in the world. With all respect to all individuals who performed exceptionally well, not least Dave Chaffey, the heavy weight category this year is left in the shade of the lighter categories, where it seems all competed in a way that honoured both the event, the promoter and themselves. Had every athlete in the heavy weight done the same, we might have seen many spectacular matches, instead of just one.

Anders Axklo