This year I was lucky to see a lot of fights. Some were passing, others - decided one’s sports career.

I looked at most of these fights through the viewfinder of the camera, and only Zloty Tur and the Top 8 finals I was able to observe “directly”. I want to note the most important, in my opinion, meetings of this year.

The fight between Levan Saginashvili and Vitaly Laletin in the third stage of Top 8. I consider it important not because it is the final match of the project. The struggle of these two giants marked the boundaries of their strength and skills. The fight made it clear to us that Laletin still has a large supply of space for development, and Saginashvili has a serious technical arsenal and hones his ability to think strategically. In fact, this fight sets the tone for the second Top 8 project in the open weight class for next year.

Match of Engin Terzi and Mindaugas Tarasaitis as it was the first ranking armfight. It rarely happens that a duel of athletes from light categories attracts so much attention. And in fact, this fight turned out to be very beautiful and technical.

Although the Lithuanian armwrestler lost then, but this fight determined his further movement in the professional league. And Engin Terzi once again had no opportunity to calmly retire. But this is for the best!

Eline Janeheim and Fia Reisek in the finals of the World Cup. Not just because the fight was impressive. These two Swedes are absolutely unattainable, and at the table we saw a battle of experience and growing strength. But their duel clearly showed the evolution of the athlete in arm wrestling. Young people are extremely strong, and in addition, they have another important advantage - time.

In addition, I would like to highlight the China Open Cup. This tournament was interesting for its composition, it managed to attract a huge (as for competitions with such conditions) number of participants from Europe. Thanks to this event, we can understand the level of strength of athletes in different parts of the world, although the Americans was not enough to complete the picture.

I believe that the coming year will bring us even more exciting fights and good news. I wish every athlete - professional or beginner - inspiration and obstinacy.

Everything will be armwrestling!