Everyone is thinking that it was an easy victory for me but why all my upper body is sore, especially lats, back shoulders, and forearms? It was not easy as some thinks. Especially mentally, it was a very tough challenge. I dislike pulling against Mindaugas as he is smart and very technical. I had no clue about the outcome until we actually pulled. I was expecting more of a control with left hand and I sure didn't have the control as I thought I could have. So after the left hand match I was not confident but because of my right wrist and pronator being more solid than my left the result was in my favour. The truth is that I was not so far from winning at the Zloty Tur either. Some even thought that my third hit was a pin on first round meeting. Then I lost on fouls and had to pull a lot of matches at the B side to reach the final again and even the final match was not easy for Mindaugas.

Also at Zloty Tur in both qualification and final strap buckle was on my hand. In Istanbul again he stopped my hits at the rounds that buckle was on my hand. It was better for me when the buckle was on his hand.

I openly told Mindaugas where I will hit and what the possibilities are. I also told him about his chance to win with left hand is only to toproll my wrist. If I had chance to pull him again with one arm only I would choose right arm. Not saying that I would win but I felt better with right hand.

I would love to train with him like 2 hours at the table right and left. İt would be a great chess game.

His endurance would be better but I would always get the start for sure until I am totally done.

Most of the armwrestlers are focused on one direction at a time and Mindaugas is great to hunt those guys while I can coordinate muscle groups well to apply pressure against more than one direction. So when Mindaugas is trying to stop my side hit he loads my hand very well but my wrist handles the pressure even though I can't fully control his pronator. But when he applies all those pressure against my hand he kind of losses his hand control over my pronator and once I hit I take his wrist. I knew that he had to give up on either his arm or his hand when we pull.

It is not easy to control both my hand and pronator at same time. I still don't know what his Bender move is but I told him that it's not easy to apply some technique which will surprise me after near 30 years of pulling at world level.

Mindaugas by himself is enough of danger both mentally and physically. I am glad that he didn't come with more surprises than his skills that he already had.

I really hope that he will not try to do radical changes in his pulling style before his short-term events. Because it may result in a negative way. His style is already great and IMO he just need to do small adjustments to reach perfection. I also guarantee him that he will not meet with someone who will have my muscle coordination. He will meet people stronger than me but Mindaugas will overcome their power. He shouldn't doubt himself because of our match.

I have nothing to say about him except positive thoughts. Wish him the best and I believe he will become a lightweight legend in the future.

Engin Terzi