It’s been obvious for a long time now that anyone can arm-wrestle. But to fight in the most prestigious tournaments you need something more. You need superhuman strength, skill, technique, intelligence and a fighter’s heart. Those are the qualities of fighters participating in the Professionals’ World Cup. It is here that legends come to fight.

A bit of history

Nemiroff World Cup is, for armwrestling pros at least, the most prestigious tournament on Earth. Many would disagree, saying that it should be Olympics. And they would be right! An then of course there are Europeans and Worlds, where loads of stars come to fight, but the number of weight categories (every 5kg) and participation of a huge number of people makes it hard to choose the best of the best. The annual Professionals’ World Cup is where the real stars are chosen, because only the top armwrestlers are invited to participate. There are also fewer weight categories. And then there’s the prestigious OPEN category, choosing the best of the best of the whole year.

The history of Professionals’ World Cup dates back to 2000. It is then when the first “Zloty Tur Cup” took place. The best fighters from Poland and Ukraine took part. This became a sort of a national match, but certainly this tournament became history in the world of armwrestling.

I ZLOTY TUR CUP TOURNAMENT

Undefeated Bondaruk

Five women and twenty nine men met on 20^th February 2000 in Gdynia, in Tornado club at the first, international armwrestling tournament of the “Zloty Tur” series. The prize was 1200$.

A Ukrainian fighter, Grigori Bondaruk, proved undefeated, winning both his category (up to 81 kg) and the prestigious OPEN. This unimpressive, 78 kg fighter had no problem beating guys who looked really scary.

The biggest emotions among the public were caused by the disabled fights, The winner of those was Dariusz Gabrynowicz (Poland), who beat Janusz Bułka (Poland) in the finals. The ladies’ fights were also a big surprise. In the up to 60 kg category, Irena Zielinska of Ukraine proved the strongest, defeating Miroslawa Karasinska of Poland in the finals. In the above 60 kg category there were three contestants. Katarzyna Thermann took 1^st place, beating Aneta Florczyk. Third came Ewa Przytulska. The rivalry in particular weight categories was mainly between Polish and Ukrainian fighters.

Our eastern neighbors did very well in the three „lighter” categories. Among the people under 65 kg, Anton Sobko won before Taras Mucha (both from Ukraine). The honor of Polish fighters was defended by Ireneusz Szymański, who too k3rd in up to 65 kg. In the next category- up to 73 kg, the Ukrainian Anriej Switlyk won, beating two Poles – Sebastian Kłos and Daniel Reszka. In the three heaviest categories first places were taken by Polish fighters: Bartłomiej Babij (up to 90kg), Mirosław Myszka (up to 100 kg) and Ireneusz Weber (over. 100 kg).

At the II Zloty Tur Cup the prize pool was 1000 dollars in the overall category, first place in category - four hundred for men and two hundred for women. Stars came to Gdynia again to fight for glory. Who won the OPEN? Read on in the next article.

Paweł Podlewski