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Ukrainian Kickboxing Team Brings Home 80 Medals
Kyiv, July 9, 2012. Ukrainian kickboxers took Greek Thessaloniki by storm, becoming world’s strongest kickboxing team for the fourth time in a row. Athletes from Ukraine obtained the total amount of 80 medals, 28 of them were gold, informs Inter. “We fought like tigers,” commented on the victory five-time world champion in kickboxing Roman Vlasenko.
One of the winners at the tournament was nine year old Hanna Fizko, who won her second gold medal in Thessaloniki. Teams of journalists and cameramen met Ukrainian athletes at the airport. The glorious kickboxers were wearing their numerous medals. The championship in Greece was organized by World Pan Amateur Kickboxing Association and was dedicated to self-defense.
Most recently, Ukrainian national kickboxing team won 10 medals at WAKO World Championships 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. In October of 2011, Ukrainian kickboxers Dmytro Bezverkhyi, Dmytro Kirpan, and Kateryna Solovey won gold medals at the WAKO World Kickboxing Championships K1, LK, LC, LK 2011 in Skopje, Macedonia. The Ukrainian team claimed the total of eight awards in the competition.
Kickboxing came to Ukraine in late 1989 when the Kickboxing Council of the USSR was founded in Kyiv. Then Ukrainian kickboxers won one gold, two silver, and three bronze awards in the full-contact category at the Hungarian Open Championship. By 1990 two Ukrainian sportsmen became European champions.
Notably, the celebrated Ukrainian boxer, the current WBC champion Vitali Klitschko became the world champion in kickboxing six times – twice among amateur sportsmen and four times among professionals. Klitschko participated in the competitions under the heavyweight 91 kg plus category in the full-contact section.
Vitali Klitschko and his younger brother Volodymyr – the current WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO, and Ring Magazine Champion – are the most known Ukrainian boxers at the moment. On July 8th, 2012, Volodymyr Klitschko, 36, defeated his American rival Tony Thompson, 40, with a knockdown in a six-round match.