Belarus second at IFMA-EMF European Championships Muaythai in Portugal

         The Belarusian national Muay Thai team earned the second place in the medal count at the 2013 IFMA-EMF European Championships Muaythai that has concluded in Portugal’s capital Lisbon.
        The Belarusians won 19 medals at the competition. Gold medals were picked up by Vitaly Gurkov in the under 71kg weight category, Dmitry Valent (81kg), Sergei Skiba (51kg), Dmitry Varts (63.5kg) and Denis Goncharyonok (91kg). On the men’s side, two silver were bagged by Alexei Bliznyov (48kg) and Andrei Kulebin (67kg). Bronze was won by Artyom Avanesov (60kg). On the women’s side, the hero was Belarus’ Maria Pimakhova who returned to the ring after a many-year pause and won the 60kg gold. Yelena Leshkevich (45kg) and Victoria Polyanskaya (54kg) clinched the bronze medals. The Belarusian juniors also triumphed at the competition. Vadim Rolich was dominant in the juniors’ 81kg. Nikolai Svedomsky (48kg), Andrei Chigileichik (51kg), Roman Dovnar (54kg) and Kirill Zazayev (57kg) bagged silver. Bronze went to Maksim Petkevich (60kg), Vladiskav Nikitin (71kg) and Vladislav Mikhailovsky (75kg).
Since 2005 Belarusians have won the Muay Thai world championships five times and celebrated victories at European championships on four occasions.