Levan Saginashvili won the left hand supers category as expected. He was the winner of this category in last a few EAC and WAF events. In this category Arif was not so close to Levan but Arif was a head above the rest of the guys.

In 110kg left hand category there was a big surprise, Krasimir Kostadinov won the gold over Ivan Matyushenko of Russia. Last year Ivan won the gold over Krasimir after a very easy match but this Krasimir was able to catch Ivan’s attack and brought the game into an endurance game. At the end Ivan fouled out and Krasimir won the gold.

Then Arif Ertem from Turkey and the current WAF Champion of this class Genady Kvikvinia from Georgian met. We were expecting a tough battle but Arif won easily in strap. Then Arif beat Krasimir also easily and Genady beat Levan. Then in the semi final Krasimir beat Genady on fouls to meet Arif once again. Arif proved that he was the best in this class. Some may argue that both Krasimir and Levan were so tired after their tough battle but Arif beat Genady in a fresh match and Genady beat Levan at last year’s WAF final. So it is hard to take anything from Arif.

In 100kg class we saw the return of Oncescu who is multiple time WAF and European Champion. Even though he had been away from the sport for so many years i can say that he did not perform bad at all. He won bronze medals with both hands. In this class Vitaly Laletin once again showed that he is the best.

  In 90kg Irakli Gamtenadze from Georgia won the gold medals both with right and left hands.

With right hand Alan Makaev from Russia gave Irakli some trouble but Gamtenadze was experienced and patient enough to win the match.

85 kg class was expected to have tougher competitor list but Artem Taynov, Spartak Zoloev, Oleg Zhokh and Stefan Lengarov have decided to not to compete the Europeans. We all thought that it would be an easy even for Sasho Andreev but right from the beginning Peter Kovacks from Hungary gave Sasho some serious trouble with left arm. Sasho did not start the event so great but ended with confidence. In this class Plamen Dimitrov vs Jaba Getiashvili was impressive as I was wondering about the outcome.

80kg class right hand class was with the absence of Legendary Zoloev Hadzimurat who pulled 90kg in this year’s Russian Nationals. Oguzhan Kocak from Turkey and Zurab Tavberidze from Georgia were the clear favorites of the class. They met 4 times last year in this category. Both in 2015 EAC and WAF Oguzhan beat Zurab at their first meet at the A side but then Oguzhan met Zoloev as his next match and lost against him even though both times he gave him 5-6 seconds match. Then in the semi finals Zurab beat Oguzhan. This year they met without having Zoloev in their category and their first match’s first start was a long one in hook where Zurab got an elbow foul. Then in second start Oguzhan beat Zurab with a quick outside move. In the final Oguzhan again won with an outside move to take the gold. Oguzhan is only 20 years old and he may become one of the all times best in the future.

Engin Terzi