The IMMAF Youth World Championships returned for another day of fighting action at the Mubadala Arena as the rest of Youth B took to the ring.
34 more medals were up for grabs, and our athletes didn’t disappoint.
We had first medals of the tournament for Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as a first gold of the tournament for Angola.
Boys
In the 40kg division Tajikistan’s Abubakir Rustamov narrowly clinched gold over home athlete Said Alblooshi of the UAE via a split decision. Fellow teammate Ali Mohamed Alnajar and Tajikistan Huseinjon Barotov, mopped up the bronze medals.
Theos McEvatt of England was thwarted to the gold medal in the 48kg division, submitting via armbar to Poland’s Ksawery Mosing. Serhii Sobishchanskyi of Ukraine claimed bronze alongside Georgiy Zavershinskiy who earned a first medal of the tournament for Kazakhstan.
Tajikistan claimed their second gold medal of the day in the 57kg division through Abubakr Sattorov who was unanimously voted the victor against Nurdoolot Borubekov of Kyrgyzstan. Ukraine’s Oleksandr Vitvitskyi and Italy’s Massimiliano Mazza picked up the bronze medals.
Ukraine turned the day’s close calls into a gold with Oleksii Bolbochan who defeated USA athlete David Daniels by unanimous decision in the 67kg category. Nicholas Pavon also from Team USA and Abdulelah Meeraleam of Saudi Arabia earnt their countries a bronze medal each.
To wrap up the male section, Tajikistan made it a hattrick of golds when Usmon Nazarov forced Ukraine’s Illia Hladiichuk into submission via an armbar. Fellow Ukrainian Serhii Sobishchanskyi and Kazakhstan fighter Georgiy Zavershinskiy claimed joint third place in the 77.1kg division.
Girls
Despite starting MMA just four months previously, Bella Adams of Team England joined her younger sister as a gold medallist by unanimously beating Mexico’s Ginger Molinares Torres in the 48kg final. Meanwhile Hungarian Imola Varga claimed a respectable third place.
Olivia Babiarz of Ireland thwarted Italian fighter Alice Crepaldi in the 57kg division with a submission via arm bar. Yana Pavliuk and Ugiloy Fayzullaeva earned joint third place for both Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Mayra Lemos gave the energetic Angolan supporters a reason to raise the decibels further when she won gold against England’s Valentina Pensavalle via split decision. Aisha Alhammadi of the UAE and Lebanon’s Marita Abou Farhat finished as the runners up in third place.
Friday will see our Youth A category fighters take to the ring for the first time this tournament, following the completion of Youth B today.
We have another three full days of thrilling competition still to come!
