At the III international Zloty Tur Cup, 2 March 2002 in Gdynia, Gemini Center, we all waited for the up to 73 kg champion of last year, “Professor” Tzvetan Gashevski from Bulgaria and his rival, Grigori Bondaruk from Ukraine.

But only Rustam Babaev came from last year’s crew. And this time he was undefeated. 2^nd place – a great surprise – Zbyszek Chmielewski, Polish wrestler.

90 kg - Germanus defeated

Jan Germanus, defendant of last year’s title, approaches the table and … loses to Ukrainian Taras Ivakin, taking “only” 2^nd place in his weight.

+90 kg – Alexey wins

Last year this weight’s greatest fights were between Voevoda and the Czech “Giant”, Frantisek Zivny. We awaited the rematch, the advantage of weight (about 35 kg) and experience (6 to 3 years) was on Czech side. It looked interesting, but Frantisek lost very quick to Alexey. And then he lost just as quickly to Semerenko.

And Voevoda, more focused and rested in the final fight, beat the Ukrainian.

Open – great rematch

The title defender, Jan Germanus, after a few victorious fights, met Alexey Voevoda in semi-finals. “Will 2001 happen all over again?” - we asked ourselves. They both looked very tired at this point. This time around Alexey won with advantage.

The minutes before the final were spent warming or cooling elbows, according to needs. Voevoda awaited the winner – Gazdarica or Germanus. He waited and he rested. Jan gave the audience no satisfaction, he beat Peter quickly. In the finals, Germanus approached the table non too quickly, and Voevoda was pale and had perspiration on his face. Both were tense and focused, but also visibly tired. The final took no longer than the arm move from center to pad. Alexey Voevoda won the Zloty Tur 2002! I had an impression he couldn’t believe it for some time yet.

No doubt that the focal point of IV Zloty Tur were also the OPEN fights. Read on in the next article!

Paweł Podlewski