Seven out of nine

On May 17 Novy Urengoy hosted the 5th Regular Open International Kumite Kyokushin Championship Yamburg Cup – Yamal 2014. The competition took place in the sports and recreation complex of Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg. The company organized the tournament jointly with the International Federation of Karate (IFK), Kyokushin.

80 athletes from 15 countries, namely Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Turkmenistan, the UK and Uzbekistan came to compete for the champion title. Andrey Bura, Chairman of the Russian Kyokushin Federation was the chief referee of the competition. Alexey Shepelev, Alexey Gorokhov, Felix Anisimov, Vasily Bogushov, Dmitry Savelyev, Evgeny Yermolin, Jansen Conchita were the referees on tatami. IFK President Steve Arneil and IFK Vice President David Pickthall were the honorary guests of the Championship.

According to Rashit Sharipov, Vice President of the Kyokushin Federation of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, Deputy Director General – Head of the Corporate Security Service of Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg, “year by year the Yamburg Cup becomes more and more respectable, ever more renowned athletes come to us, the tournament level is getting higher.”

The winners were declared in three weight categories: "under 70 kilograms", "under 80 kilograms" and "over 80 kilograms". Russian athletes, the employees of Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg won seven out of nine prize places.

In the ‘under 70 kilograms’ category the prize places were distributed as follows: Dmitry Moiseev from Kazakhstan made it to the top tier of the podium, the second and the third places were won by Alexander Tomilov and Evgeny Solomennikov from Russia respectively.

In the weight category of "under 80 kilograms" it was Denis Chepkasov who captured the Champion title in a close competition. He was also awarded the special prize For the Will to Win. Araik Rafaelyan from Armenia was second and Russia’s Yury Chuchkov won the third prize.

In heavy weight – over 80 kilograms – all the prizes were won by the Yamburg team. Vitaly Ishakhneli became the titleholder, Artur Tilov took the silver and also won the first prize in tameshiwari (board breaking) and Alexander Karshigeev captured the bronze.