Moldova’s squad has won 50 medals in the tenth World Kempo Championship in Turkey’s Antalya. Twenty-seven wrestlers took part in the championship, four of whom were students of the Military Academy, who competed in four Fighting Kempo versions and took the second position in the team rankings. The results were announced in a news conference, IPN reports.
The president of the Kempo Federation of Moldova Valentin Vizant said that 15 of the 50 medals are gold, 12 are silver, while 23 are bronze and only two of the 27 wrestlers returned home without medals. “These results were achieved as a result of long years of training. The participants have trained from the age of five and have by 8-9 years of training behind,” he stated.
Roman Babii, coach and vice president of the Kempo Federation of Moldova, said that they obtained these results owing to the new training methodology used. The championship included four Fighting Kempo versions and this enabled to choose athletes from different age and weight brackets.
Athlete Victor Siumbeli, who won gold in the knockdown category, said it was hard for him to win, but the training helped him a lot. Nicolae Galbura, student at the Military Academy who medaled gold in the submission version, said he was satisfied with his result and will take part in this championship the next years as well.
The wrestlers who represented Moldova at the World Kempo Championship were selected at national competitions. They competed in four Fighting Kempo versions: full, semi, submission, and knockdown.
Moldova was represented at this championship for the second consecutive year. Last year the team consisted of 11 athletes who won 19 medals, six of whom gold.
