Tomorrow The Diamond Cup 2016 in Antwerpen, Belgium will be held. Several fighters from different categories are ready, and with some “new” weight categories on top of that – it`s ready for some great fights! We are going to take a look on some of the profiles of the tournament for this year…
The first Diamond Cup was held in 2004. So in 2007,2009,2011 and in 2014. The 2014 addition was “The 1st West European Championship”
Up to 2009 it had been mostly Western European countries that had joined the tournament. In 2009, the tournament did reach a new level getting in fighters from Lithuania, Ukraine, Denmark and more. The Lithuanian fighters capture 11 medals, wining all women divisions and super heavy weight and light weight for the men. The Danish fighters with 5 medals, did also a very strong tournament.
The Diamond Cup in 2011 was one of the hardest tournament in Europe at the time. Now rest of the Eastern Europe had entered, and Russia and Kazakhstan was represented with their top fighters. Russia with fighters from IFK and WKO/Shin and Kazakhstan with fighters from WKO/Shin. Poland was also strongly represented together with Lithuania.
The results was Russia, Lithuania and Kazakhstan mainly at the podium. Notable was in the women division middleweight, there a Hungarian fighter made a little upset winning the tournament – Szepesi Csenge. One of the favorites now this year.
2014, as mention, it was decided to include only the Western Europe countries. As a result of that Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland and other countries from East, did not attend. This made way from Germany, Great Britain Belgium and The Netherlands. Also Spain, France and Sweden entered the podium. This year it was also added cadets/ U22 category.
2016, once again the Diamond Cup is open for all countries. We can see some of the strong nations from 2011 are back. But we do have to say that the Kazakhstan, Russia and Lithuania had stronger teams in 2011, when top class fighters of the world as Vladimir Artyushin, Mariya Gridneva, Dmitri Moisseyev, Alexander Karshigeev, Umbarek Tokhtabaev, Dmitriy Startsev, Yevgeniy Solomennikov, Andrius Draugelus, Andrius Misceckas, Diana Maciute , Inga Mikstaite. The tournament in 2011 did also have some more fighters in some categories, especially the women categories. That said this years weight categories for men are also “new” with -65, -75, -85 and +85kg. (This will be the new categories (men) used in the World Cup 2017)
Heavy weight women with only 6 fighters, should have more fighters. But the level among the fighters are very good. World Champion Szepesi Csenge (only Hungarian fighter !?) would be the favorite, but others as Agata Winiarska (Kaliciak) and Bojda Anna from Poland are good fighters, and Swedish Sara Hägge, the runner up from 2014 as well.
Women middleweight have 15 fighters, and the fighters are spread out from different organizations and countries. Looking on the records, Diana Cantero Spain KWF would be the biggest star, with several EC titles, WT victories. Also Russian fighter Marina Sobanina, do have the skills to take this, and used to compete at top level.Joke De Borger ,Belgium reign European Champion from Rengonkai. Sweden and Poland do also have some good fighters, Cecilia Wallen, winner of French Open, Swedish Open, Danish Open to name a few. Marta Lubos technical fighter with good record 3rd at the EC.The Netherlands have several good fighters, in the line up.
Women light weigh. This category only have five fighters, two from Russia, two from Poland and one from The Netherlands. Kseniia Doronina Russia, U18 World Champion from 2013, Alina Polischuk is the reign European Champion (Royama) Polish Agata Godos alos have a good record, representing Poland several times in tournaments.
Men light weight. Usually for many this category starts at -70 kg , so this time we can see that many fighters are taking a choice now when the category limit is -65 or – 75 kg at the next. Russia, Kazakhstan and Poland with strong fighters, national team fighters, Sweden with good experience through Christoffer Sjölund. The category(tournament) seems to apply to younger fighters, on they way up.
Men middleweight. Above 20 fighters in this class, and this reaches across the world. Spain with five fighters in the line up (from two org) have most fighters in the category. But again Russia and Poland do have some strong fighters with records. Belgium do also have some experienced fighters, as well as Sweden and Norway. We think that this category has two levels, one whit a hand full fighters that will be in the top. The other level will have a harder day at the office, and some do have a long way to travel, so we hope everybody will be at the line up when it starts.
Light heavy weight. In this category we have some of the biggest profiles in the men division. Sergej Braun, Germay with many tittles, Yuto Eguchi , Japan national team fighter, recently fought in the World Championship. Jonas Rosin, Sweden. Also well merited in the World / Europe fighting scale. Rasmus Bergström, national team member of Sweden Shin, winner of several tournaments. This is a few names in a good category, and the draw in this category will be very interesting.
Heavy weight, the biggest class in number – and also maybe the category with the highest level. Top fighters from several countries, some of the biggest will be Brian Jakobsen, Denmark, Klibavicius Antanas, Lithuania, Marek Wolny, Poland, Pablo Estensoro, Spain. This is only some of the most known in this class, and we have several other fighters close too the absolute top level!