W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)

W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon) were the joint eighteenth European kickboxing championships held by the W.A.K.O. organization (the other event would be held the next month in Skopje, Macedonia) and the second to be held in Portugal and the city of Lisbon. The event was open to amateur men and women from across Europe although a number of professional fighters such as Luis Reis would take part. All in all, it was the largest ever European championships with around 560 athletes from 31 countries taking part. One of the reasons for the higher numbers being that W.A.K.O. had merged had recently merged with the I.K.A.S. and took on many of the I.K.A.S. organization's fighters. Another reason was that some countries were allowed multiple competitors per weight division in the Full-Contact and Semi-Contact categories.

W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)
The poster for W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)
Information
Promotion	W.A.K.O.
Date	24 October (Start) 30 October 2006 (End)
City	Lisbon, Portugal
Event chronology
W.A.K.O. World Championships 2005 (Szeged) W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon) W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Skopje)

There were four styles on offer in Lisbon; Full-Contact, Semi-Contact, Musical Forms and Aero-Kickboxing. By the end of the championships Russia was once again the strongest nation across all styles, with Italy in second and Hungary in third. The event was held over seven days in Lisbon, Portugal, starting on Tuesday, 24 October and finishing on Monday, 30 October.

Full-Contact

Full-Contact is a form of kickboxing where the contestants can throw punches and kicks with full power at legal targets above the waist. Victories are usually gained via a point's decision or by referee stoppage and as with most other forms of amateur kickboxing, various head and body protection must be worn. More information on Full-Contact and the rule set can be accessed at the W.A.K.O. website. Both men and women had competitions at Lisbon, with the men having twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs and the women seven, ranging from 48 kg/105.6 lbs to over 70 kg/+143 lbs and unlike more recent W.A.K.O. championships some countries were allowed more than one athlete per weight division.

There were several repeat winners at Lisbon with Zurab Faroyan moving up in weight to win his third gold medal in a row, Konstantin Sbytov won in Full-Contact after winning in Low-Kick at the world championships in Agadir while Valeria Calabrese and Monika Florek had won at the last world championships in Szeged. Local fighter and K-1 MAX regional winner Luis Reis was probably the most recognisable name in the category but had to make do with silver. By the end of the championships, Russia were once again the strongest nation in Full-Contact, winning nine gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.

Men's Full-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Light Bantamweight -51 kg	Ivan Sciolla	Ramazan Ballioglu	Wojciech Peryt Pavel Isinbaev
Bantamweight -54 kg	Serhiy Cherkaskyy	Ruslan Abbasov	David Oltvanyi Andrey Samozhikov
Featherweight -57 kg	Damian Ławniczak	Igor Pavlenko	Alexander Shamray Remzi Ulas
Lightweight -60 kg	Zurab Faroyan	Daniel Martins	Sandor Kornel Armen Israelyan
Light Welterweight -63.5 kg	Evgeny Mayer	Ayoub Saidi	Toma Tomov Tomasz Pietraszewski
Welterweight -67 kg	Vladimir Tarasov	Edmond Mebenga	Venelin Iankov Zsolt Nagy
Light Middleweight -71 kg	Konstantin Sbytov	Luis Reis	Pavel Tarik Mariusz Zietek
Middleweight -75 kg	Markus Hakulinen	Ricardo Fernandes	Manuchari Pipiya Krasimir Apostolov
Light Heavyweight -81 kg	Murat Betsukov	Mehmet Özer	Teppo Laine Bernhard Sussitz
Cruiserweight -86 kg	Sergey Bogdan	Maxim Voronov	Sérgio Gonçalves Bartolomiej Bocian
Heavyweight -91 kg	Roman Beskishkov	Pavel Chichunov	Milorad Gajović Balazs Varga
Super Heavyweight +91 kg	Hamza Kendircioğlu	Kenan Akbulut	Jukka Saarinen Gabor Meiszter

Women's Full-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Bantamweight -48 kg	Valeria Calabrese	Carina Maia	Heike Rings Patrycja Kotlarz
Featherweight -52 kg	Seda Duygu Aygun	Eva Maria Fernandez	Katarzyna Czuba Mette Solli
Lightweight -56 kg	Lidia Andreeva	Zsuzsanna Szuknai	Zuleika Turan Jutta Nordberg
Middleweight -60 kg	Monika Florek	Letizia Bitozzi	Derya Adiguzel Katarina Ilicic
Light Heavyweight -65 kg	Chiara Mandelli	Nicole Trimmel	Vera Avdeeva Carla Silva
Heavyweight -70 kg	Svetlana Kulakova	Nadja Fritsche	Natalie John Yeliz Fındık
Super Heavyweight +70 kg	Adina Cocieru	Mandalena Misir	Karen Dews Sabine Schnell

Semi-Contact

Semi-Contact is a form of kickboxing where the contestants are allowed to throw kicks and punches with minimal force at legal targets above the waist. Almost all matches are won via a point's decision with the fighters scored on strikes landed using skill, speed and technique with power prohibited. Despite the less physical nature of the style as with other forms of amateur kickboxing, head and body protection must be worn. More information on Semi-Contact can be found at the official W.A.K.O. website. At Lisbon the men had nine weight divisions ranging from 57 kg/125.4 lbs to over 94 kg/+206.8 lbs while the women had six, ranging from 50 kg/110 lbs to over 70 kg/154 lbs and there was also a mixed team event and unlike more recent W.A.K.O. championships some countries were allowed more than one athlete per weight division. Despite not having any household names there were a couple of repeat winners from the last world championships in Szeged, with Adriano Passoro and Gregorio Di Leo (four gold) picking up winners medals. By the end of the championships Italy beat off strong competition from Hungary to become the strongest nation in Semi-Contact, winning five golds, one silver and three silvers, while Germany won the team event.

Men's Semi-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-57 kg	Jason Doyle	Piotr Bakowski	Dezső Debreczeni Maxim Aysin
-63 kg	Adriano Passoro	Viktor Hirsch	Miroslav Grgic Bert Hennissen
-69 kg	Gregorio Di Leo	Krisztian Jaroszkievicz	Ilija Salerno Christian Boujibar
-74 kg	Morten Spissoy	Harald Schimdt	Robert McMenamy Nikos Memmos
-79 kg	Zsolt Moradi	Roman Schläppi	Dimitri Gaulis Tobias Weiss
-84 kg	Robert Knödelseder	Owen King	Zvonimir Gribl Zoltan Dancso
-89 kg	Michel Decian	Daniel Weil	Peter Ciskos Marko Desa
-94 kg	Andrea Ongaro	Colin O'Shaughnessy	Pero Gazilj Gunther Wenninger
+94 kg	Marco Culiersi	Andy Hogan	Özcan Çakmakçı Terry Hillman

Women's Semi-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-50 kg	Sharon Gill	Fadeeva Svetlana	Monika Molnar Valentina Scorsonelli
-55 kg	Lorraine McDermott	Linda Fogliano	Maria Kushtanova Betty Kovacs
-60 kg	Klara Marton	Emilia Szablowska	Lisa Boardman Ida Abrahamsen
-65 kg	Chiara Leonardi	Melanie Moder	Barbara Szendrei Vichy Praet
-70 kg	Ivett Pruzsinszky	Jemma Campbell	Joan Deegan Natalie Cassidy
+70 kg	Zsofia Minda	Nadja Sibila	Romina Succi Rosemarie James

Team Semi-Contact Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team Semi-Contact	Germany	Hungary	Italy Greece

Musical Forms

Musical Forms is a type of non-physical competition which sees the contestants fighting against imaginary foes using Martial Arts techniques - more information on the style can be found on the W.A.K.O. website. Unlike other styles at Agadir there were no weight divisions only male and female competitions and competitors were allowed to compete in more than one category and some countries had more than one athlete in each category. The men and women at Lisbon competed in four different styles explained below:

• Hard Styles – coming from Karate and Taekwondo.
• Soft Styles – coming from Kung Fu and Wushu.
• Hard Styles with Weapons – using weapons such as Kama, Sai, Tonfa, Nunchaku, Bō, Katana.
• Soft Styles with Weapons - using weapons such as Naginata, Nunchaku, Tai Chi Chuan Sword, Whip Chain.

The most notable winner in the style was Andrey Bosak who won three golds and a silver medal across the four categories he competed in. Other winners who had also won at the last world championships in Agadir included Olga Kudinova and the highly decorated Veronica Dombrovskaya. By the end of the championships Russia dominated the style, winning five golds, seven silvers and two bronzes.

Men's Musical Forms Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Hard Styles	Kevin Cetout	Andrey Bosak	Andrey Savushkin
Soft Styles	Andrey Bosak	Evgeny Krylov	Alberto Leonardi
Hard Styles - Weapons	Andrey Bosak	Andrey Savushkin	Kevin Cetout
Soft Styles - Weapons	Andrey Bosak	Andrey Savushkin	Michael Moeller

Women's Musical Forms Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Hard Styles	Olga Kudinova	Jessica Holmes	Maria Pekarchyk
Soft Styles	Veronika Dombrovskaya	Elena Chirkova	Maria Pekarchyk
Hard Styles - Weapons	Maria Pekarchyk	Ekaterina Chizikova	Anna Likhonina
Soft Styles - Weapons	Ekaterina Chizhikova	Elena Chirkova	Maria Pekarchyk

Aero-Kickboxing

Aero Kickboxing is a non-physical competition, involving participants using a mixture of aerobic and kickboxing techniques in time to specifically selected music. There are no weight divisions as with other forms of kickboxing in W.A.K.O. but there are separate male, female and team categories, with or without an aerobic step. As with Musical Forms, competitors were allowed to compete in more than one category and some countries had more than one athlete in each category. More information on Aero-Kickboxing and the rules can be found on the W.A.K.O. website. Although a fairly low profile sport, the most notable winner was Daniele De Santis who won both the men's categories as well as gaining a gold as part of the Italian team. These three gold medals helped propel Italy to the top of the leaderboard as the strongest country in Aero-Kickboxing.

Men's Aero-Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Individual without Step	Daniele De Santis	Cionel Burger	Andreas Riem
Aero Individual with Step	Daniele De Santis	Cionel Burger	Andreas Riem

Women's Aero-Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Individual without Step	Brigitta Gazdag	Bianca Topilatu	Marina Lelic
Aero Individual with Step	Marina Lelic	Petra Kmetec	Judith Fajka

Team Aero-Kickboxing Medals Table

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Individual without Step	Team Italy	Team Hungary	Team Bulgaria
Aero Individual with Step	Team Hungary	Team Croatia I	Team Croatia II

Overall Medals Standing (Top 5)

Ranking	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1	Russia	14	11	11
2	Italy	11	2	4
3	Hungary	6	4	12
4	Germany	2	5	7
5	Ireland	2	2	4
5	Turkey	2	2	4

See also

• List of WAKO Amateur European Championships
• List of WAKO Amateur World Championships

External links

• WAKO World Association of Kickboxing Organizations Official Site