A strong year from Ilya Yakovlev ends with victory in Kokoro Cup. The strong heavyweight from Kazakhstan wins Kokoro Cup and he can look back on a very strong year in terms of results. Not only did Yakovlev win Saturdays tournament, he is the Champion of the 15th Asia Open Championship, and “Andrey Materov memorial” tournament this year. The tournamnet had some noticeable changes, which meant that it got unexpected setup and results.
Kokoro Cup had one of the best line up the could have. Fighters as Nazar Nasirov – Russia, Vasil Vangelov – Bulgaria, Gerard Wil – Poland. Edgar Sieciński – Lihuania. Maciej Mazur – Poland. These are all fighters with very strong records, and all of them are top seeded fighters. What was unfortunate was that all these were prevented to participate in this year’s tournament. And there is no doubt that this type of athletes will dominate the picture in the tournaments they participate in.
But the Kokoro Team did a great job bringing in other fighters, and let it be said this was also strong fighters that showed great skills.
Results – DRAW
- Ilya Yakovlev – Kazakhstan
- Justinas Kvietka – Lithuania
- Antanas Klibavicius – Lithuania
- Ikuya Kawabata – Japan
Kokoro Cup is a professional tournament. Organisers have a very skilled team, and they deliver a tournament that has everything what a tournament should have. The fighting was hard and very even. This year the line up was dominated by Lithuania and Poland. Lithuania with three athletes and Poland with four. But even with four athletes Poland were unable to reach the podium. But number one nation in Europe, Lithuania, had serious plans. But The met heavy resistance by internationale fighters.
Japan had two fighters, and they showed very god fighting and spirit. Also to mention Gabor Rozsa, Hungarian top fighter. Even he got beaten by Lithuanina Justinas Kvietka, Rozsa showed once again formidable technique and fighting style. The Lithuanian fighters does not seem to be interested in technical fighting and created fights that mostly just was on the physical level. Fighting was hard, but also in the “gray zone” and a little on the edge with arm use, pushing and punching that hit high on the opponent. This type of fighting is very strong to face, but there will always be a champion to match it – Ilya Yakovlev – Kazakhstan. Yakovlev got the power to stop the yong Lithuanian fighter Justinas Kvietka in the final, and takes one of international top prizes.
Antanas Klibavicius, the super strong Lithuanian fighter was “stopped” by country man Kveitka, but stood up hard against the Japanese fighter in the battle of third place, and got the third place. On his road Klibavicius had stopped the other fighter from Japan, Go Kusubae.
See more on the official KOKORO CUP WEBSITE