They are 15 years old, but they have to face 18 year olds during tournaments. Young armwrestlers feel that they are being mistreated, and they are right. There are huge differences in the physical development of a 15 – and an 18-year old.

- It’s unfair, the physical difference between those young people – says Igor Mazurenko. – As vice president of EAF I’d like to point out that the accepted junior category these days makes 21 the age limit. There is no juniors ages 14 – 16 category.

The effect is that 15 – 16 year olds have to fight people 2-3 years their seniors. That keeps them from winning medals, because they have no chance to, and makes them averse to the sport.

- The youngest armwrestlers should have separate competitions and be given an alternative, so that they don’t get embittered by the sport and keep coming to European and World Championships – says Mazurenko. - They need to be able to fight on equal terms. In Poland we often lose young fighters when they get beat up by older opponents. First we train them, then we don’t have competitions to take them to. It’s the same nonsense every year. Russian armwrestling has tackled this problem. Junior tournaments for ages 14-16 are organized every year there, and every year about 150 contestants come to compete.

Due to the fact that European and world Championships no longer have a disabled category, separating the 14-16, 17-18 and 19-21 should be a pure formality. That’s why, during the next European Championships, Mazurenko will push for forming a 14-16 category.

- Reason dictates that it should be so – says Mazurenko. - Changes are inevitable, so that in a few years it doesn’t turn out that we don’t have a new generation of contestants.

Iza Małkowska