In the penultimate day of the Youth World Championships, IMMAF’s fighters put on one hell of a show.
The Youth A category athletes took to the fighting area in style as teams from across the world showcased their talent.
We had first medals of the competition for Spain, South Africa and Finland, and we enjoyed our closet fight of the tournament end in dramatic fashion.
Boys
The evenings finals kicked off with the boys Strawweight division which saw Samandar Abudurakhmonov of Uzbekistan claim gold by unanimous decision against Tajikistan’s Farhodi Davlatali after two rounds. Davlatali’s teammate Ismoil Zainiddinov claimed a consolation bronze as did Alexander Delchev of Bulgaria, who claimed his countries third medal of the championships.
Ukrainian Nikita Muratov missed out on gold in the Bantamweight division to Kazakhstan’s Nurlan Noruzov via unanimous decision, meaning Kazakhstan finished third in the days medal table. Mirko Mlyncek picked up a deserved bronze for Team Slovakia alongside Azerbaijan’s Jafarsadig Mirzayev.
Muratov was avenged by his teammate Artem Savranskyi in the lightweight division, who won Ukraine’s only gold of the day over Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Zhizhin in peculiar fashion. The judges vote resulted in an original draw, yet the Ukrainian was awarded the win due to a singular foul committed by Zhizhin.
In less dramatic fashion, Deividas Martinkus and Ilyosbek Bekturdiyev both claimed bronze for Ireland and Uzbekistan respectively.
A unanimous win for Abdulaziz Abdusattorov over Tajikistani fighter Sinoi Abuali ensured Uzbekistan finished top of the medal rankings for day four, as the only team with two golds. Mukhamed Khanlaev added Uzbekistan a further bronze medal alongside Milfa Kuenda Nicolau of Angola.
Girls
Joy Sheppard led Team USA to gold in the girls Bantamweight division, needing just one round to force Darina Sadich of Ukraine into submission via arm bar. Itzel Padilla added another medal to the USA’s tally after finishing joint third with Ireland’s Katie Power.
And finally wrapping up the penultimate day of the Youth World Championships, Mercedes Garcia Rodriguez won Spain their first gold of the competition after defeating Uzbekistan’s Xurshidaxon Rozikova in the lightweight final.
In a division of firsts, Astrid Pretorius and Isla Fono claimed their countries their first medals of the tournament after finishing joint third.
We head into the final day of the Youth World Championships with everything left to fight for.
