I don’t exacly know who will be there to win this one of the best and toughest event in the world but i will try to have some guesses.
I heard that Kazimir Iskanderov from Russia will be there to pull 70kg class. 4 years ago he was pulling 78kg class in the same event and won as far as i remember. With his height and age making 70kg may not be so good idea but the time will show if he made a good desicion or not. In the competitor list i saw Jambul Vibliani’s name. Jambul pulls 65kg class at EAF and WAF but not sure if he can make 63kg class here. If he makes 63kg class then his winning chance is very high no matter who comes except the current WAF champion from Azerbaijan but in 70kg class Jambul’s chance depends on the participant list. Tarasaitis Midaugas from Lithuania will also be pulling this class and i believe he has chance to win a medal as he pulled great at the last WAF. For me it is very hard to predict such class without knowing the full participant list but for example Arthur Makarov from Russia would have the best chance to win this class if he participates. Valentin Gospodinov from Bulgaria is on the participant list as well, this young guy won the Europeans with left arm in the senior division and he may be a threat for many of the top pullers. The current WAF champion with the left arm is a young guy from Armenia, if he comes i believe that he will have the highest chance to win this class with the left arm.
78kg class is also an unknown category for me since i don’t know who will be there. Mazhgan Shamiev from Kazakstan with his speed and offensive power will be one of the top guys with left arm as he even defeated Oleg Zhokh once at last year’s Zloty. But if the Armenian Vrezh Sedrakyan comes then i believe he will have higher chance as he beat Shamiev at WAF. Mantas Asmonas with right arm is my favorite guy to win this category with the right arm, as he was the winner of the last year.. Last two years’ WAF champion from Kazakstan Raikhanov Shynbolat is another favorite of this class with the right arm (Of course if he comes).
In 86 kg right arm if Zoloev Haidzimurat competes this class then he sure wins i believe but not sure if he will pull 86kg or 95kg. Zurab Tavberidze from Georgia, Spartak Zoloev from Russia, Mger Muselian from Ukraine and Sasho Andreev from Bulgaria would be the top guys if they all come and pull in this class. All these 4 guys have strong right and left arms but last WAF proved that Oleg Zhokh is untouchable in this category with the left arm. I believe that if Artem Taynov comes he would pull 95kg class after his experience with Zhokh at WAF.
In 95kg I believe that Zoloev would be the favorite in this class with the right arm, not sure if Prudnyk would come and try against Zoloev once again but he would be one of the favorites as well. With the left arm Prudnyk and Taynov would be amongst the favorites if no surprise happens.
105kg class is the new class for the Zloty and i believe it was very necessary fort he guys who are heavyweights but not super heavyweights. Krasimir Kostadinov would be the favorite with the right arm but with the left arm it would be interesting to watch him against Vitaly Laletin. With his tall arms and great toproll ability Laletin has potential to beat Krasimir with the left arm. Who knows maybe even with the right arm he may cause some trouble to Krasimir. Not sure who else will be in this category but it will be very interesting to watch it.
The superheavyweight class will be fun to watch. Andrey Pushkar from Ukraine will be the favorite as he is the number 1 in the world. Last year he tried to beat Dimitry Trubin with a wrist controlled side pressure and he almost lost the title of Zloty Tur overall. But in their supermatch he applied pronator mixed side pressure against Trubin and he won 6-0. It was a good game plan and it worked very well. Not sure if Dmitry will come with a counter plan for such strategy but in a fresh match Pushkar looks as the favorite. In this class there will also be Tim Bresnan and Michael Todd from USA. Both athletes are amongst the very best ones in the world. In my opinion Pushkar will be able to win against Trubin and Bresnan without much problems but Michael Todd has chance to stop Pushkar. If that happens on an early round then Pushkar may not win the class as he is not known with great endurance. Pushkar is known with his explosive & powerful start-hit and once he is stopped then he is not as effective as how he is at the start. In this amazing class there is also Genady Kvikvinia from Georgia. Genady is a threat for almost anyone once he balances the match. There is no doubt that the superheavyweight category will be the most exciting category of the 2016 Zloty.
A bit more than 2 weeks to the event and i am already excited about it. I wish the best all the pullers!