W.A.K.O. World Championships 2001 were the joint thirteenth world kickboxing championships (the other was held earlier that year in Maribor, Slovenia) hosted by the W.A.K.O. organization. It was the second championships to be held in Serbia and Montenegro (the Europeans had been held here back in 1996) and was open to amateur men and women across the world.

There were three styles on offer at Belgrade; Full-Contact, Low-Kick (men only) and Thai-Boxing (men only). The other typical styles, Semi Contact, Musical Forms etc., had taken place at the sister event in Maribor. By the end of the championships Russia was the strongest nation overall, followed by Belarus in second and hosts Serbia and Montenegro in third. The event was held over five days in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, starting on Wednesday, 21 November and finishing on Sunday, 25 November 2001.

Full-Contact

Full-Contact is a form of kickboxing where both punches and kicks are thrown with full force with strikes below the waist prohibited. Most matches are settled by either a point's decision or referee stoppage and like most other amateur contact sports, head and body protection is compulsory. More detail on Full-Contact rules can be found on the W.A.K.O. website. At Belgrade both men and women took part in the style with the men having twelve divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs, and the women had seven ranging from 48 kg/105.6 lbs to over 70 kg/+143 lbs. Notable winners included was Roman Romanchuk who would also have some success in amateur boxing and Fouad Habbani who made the successful transition to Full-Contact having won gold in Light-Contact at Maribor. By the end of the championship Russia was by far the most successful country in the category winning seven golds and six bronzes in both male and female competition.

Men's Full-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

-51 kgOlleksandr Sasyn Francisco Fernandes Ramin Allahverdiyev -54 kgAleksandr Fedorov Damian Lawniczak Maxim Glubochenko Lazaros Hatzisavvas -57 kgFouad Habbani Youness Bouignane Eduard Mammadov Pedro Marta -60 kgMichal Tomczykowski Bouchaib El Bilali Vladimir Pykhtin Dejan Kekic -63.5 kgMalik Mangouchi Arild Mikalsen Badre Belhaja Danylo Stepanenko -67 kgRuslan Batrutdinov Mariusz Ziętek Krasimiz Gambazor Roman Pichuk -71 kgRobert Nowak Rafael Gazayev Thomas Kristiansen Konstanine Belooussov -75 kgRamadani Besnik Oleyandr Kirsh Tomasz Walenski Andreas Papadakis -81 kgRoman Romanchuk Solobodan Marinkovic Alessio Rondelli Abdelhai Hanine -86 kgYohann Lemaire Mostapha Lakhsen Ljubiša Ilić David Bybee -91 kgStanislav Zemlyakov Sean Collier Andriy Ivanov Waine Turner +91 kgIvan Rudan Vyacheslav Bednyy Florentin Pintescu Dmitri Guerassimov

Women's Full-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

-48 kgOlesya Gladkova Veronique Legras Cinzia Vargiu Rita Takacs -52 kgOksana Vasilieva Fatma Akyüz Tatiana Rinaldi Aliya Boranbayeva -56 kgBarbara Plazzoli Edyta Olewniczak Evguenia Grebenchtchikova Goranka Blagojevic -60 kgMilijanka Cenic Monika Florek Julia Nemtsova K Amatava -65 kgMarjut Lappalainen Bouchara Errahmani Karolina Lukasik Marija Divjak -70 kgOlga Slevinskaia Bojaha Trajkovic No bronze medalists recorded +70 kgKabira Rochai Izabel Cavka Daniela Lazarevska

Low-Kick

Low-kick is a style of kickboxing which is similar to Full-Contact, allowed strikes (punches and kicks) to be thrown at full force, with the only difference being that strikes are also allowed to the legs of the opponent. Fights are mainly won by a point's decision or by a referee stoppage, with head and body protection mandatory for all contestants. More details on the rules can be found at the W.A.K.O. website. At Belgrade the category was open to men only with twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs. The most notable gold medallist was Ivan Strugar who won yet another gold medal (sixth overall) at a W.A.K.O. championships, while future K-1 MAX and Superleague fighters (and brothers) José Reis and Luis Reis won bronze. By the end of the championships the host nation Yugoslavia was the strongest country in Low-Kick winning five gold, one silver and one bronze.

Men's Low-Kick Kickboxing Medals Table

-51 kgUtkir Hudoyarov Mergien Monguch Jozdan Vasslilev Shyam Seebaluck -54 kgMilos Anic Nurlan Valiev Vusal Babayev Mariusz Cieśliński -57 kgEvgeniy Khil Nicolai Muhailov Mirbel Suiunbajev Gabor Kiss -60 kgNikola Mladenovic Viatcheslav Tislenko Tahir Duishekeyev Saidi El Houssain -63.5 kgMilisan Icic Boughnim El Mostafa Alexandru Pogorelov Alessio Pastifieri -67 kgIsa Mambetov Ruslan Kovalenko Luis Reis Valeri Akinchine -71 kgIssaev Ioussoup Dmitri Lihodumov Sanjar Saparbekov José Reis -75 kgIvan Sočo Kanatbek Sydygaliev Oleg Outenine Anatoliy Dyakov -81 kgIvan Strugar Drazenko Ninic Ali Porsukov Abudakar Abakarov -86 kgIsmailov Magomed Stanko Pavlović Anuar Ibrayev Ilko Makshutov -91 kgAnte Varnica Ruslan Azizov Georgi Siderov Sergey Sokolov +91 kgJovan Nikolic Jasmin Sejdinović Mirko Vlahovic Tugomir Gruica

Thai-Boxing

Thai-boxing (more commonly known as Muay Thai is the most physical style of kickboxing in which the contestants use punches, kicks, elbows and knees to attempt to defeat their opponent, often by referee stoppage or via a point's decision. As with other forms of amateur kickboxing, participants must wear head and body protection. At Belgrade the category was open to men only with twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs. Notable winners included Andrei Kulebin winning the first of what would later be many world titles and future It's Showtime 77 MAX world champion Dmitry Shakuta. As with the last world championships Belarus proved to be absolutely dominant once more in Thai-boxing, going one better this time by picking up an incredible nine gold medals.

Men's Thai-Boxing Medals Table

-51 kgAndrei Kulebin Maxim Slipchenko No bronze medalists recorded -54 kgDmitry Koren Oleg Movchan Issam Laafissi -57 kgMohamed Ajuan Edgar Arutyunyan Moghad Eshan Rastegar Ahmed Chaikho -60 kgRachid Boumalek Dmitry Ouchkanov Oleksiy Neskyy Kic Brahislav -63.5 kgEvgeni Gvozdev Mourad Tijarti Celap Hehad Oleksiy Kandalintsev -67 kgAlexei Pekarchik Shamil Gaydarbekov Pavlo Batsynu Jakob Szilard -71 kgYuri Bulat Yevgen Chronobrovtsev Namiq Hashimov Dmitry Kurbatov -75 kgDmitry Shakuta Khabib Gadjiev Milan Maljkovic Khalid Hanine -81 kgYauhen Anhalevich Lorenzo Borgomeo Maksym Kyyk Raup Izrailov -86 kgIvan Tolkachev Vadym Vlayev Domenico Giuliano -91 kgAndrei Molchanov Timur Porsukov Jevgeny Evtoshenko Milan Rabrehovic +91 kgSergei Arkhipov Dragan Jovanović Ivica Perkovic Shammal Gaddgiev

Overall Medals Standing (Top 5)

Ranking Country Gold Silver Bronze 1 Russia 10 7 13 2 Belarus 9 0 0 3 Serbia and Montenegro 6 4 9 4 Morocco 3 5 5 5 France 3 1 0

See also List of WAKO Amateur World Championships List of WAKO Amateur European Championships

References

External links WAKO World Association of Kickboxing Organizations Official Site