IV PROFESSIONALS' WORL CUP - NEMIROFF WORLD CUP 2006. For the fourth time in a row, the top elite of world armwrestling has come to Warsaw, capital of Poland. On 2nd December 2006, in Casinos Poland Hotel Hyatt hall, 88 fighters from 17 countries fought for the title of the best professional of 2006 in categories: up to 63 kg, 70 kg, 78 kg, 86, kg 95 kg, +95 kg male and in up to 60 kg female. Traditionally, ate the end of the tournament, the OPEN male category was fought, resulting in declaring the strongest professional of 2006, in this case – John Brzenk from USA.
A lot may be said of the old tournaments, but only one thing of the VIIth: a whole day of clean, fair sports rivalry, full of emotions and adrenaline. It all started at high noon Polish time, from category 63 kg.
After the eliminations, both the viewers in the audience and on television (live broadcast at Polsat Sport), awaited the semi-finals, finals and OPEN. Exactly at 22:15 Neil Pickup – professional commentator and English armwrestler, welcomed all guests. From that moment on, emotions were very high. Semi finals and finals have begun. Fight after fight showed who'll take the podium in various categories. As a result, the Ukrainian team won the most medals (first place in team classification). They were followed closely by the Russian team (second place in team classification).
After the semis and finals, eight contestants went on to fight in the OPEN (first four in categories up to 86kg, up to 95 kg and above 95 kg). In absence of some of the top guys ((Travis Bagent, Alexey Semerenko, Taras Ivakin, Andrey Puschkar and other titled sportsmen), the main Cup went without bigger problems to John Brzenk of USA. And it was well earned. John came well prepared. I think that even if the other guys came after all, he would still be able to face them, judging by a few Vendettas. But as it were, the only really worthy opponent this time was Farid Uzmanov from Uzbekhistan. But John still overcame him with power and experience and became the strongest fighter in 2006!
Paweł Podlewski