An Article about and the pictures from the Championship on FILA webpage

Thnak you Anne Pellaud form great article on Gorlice Championship! It was a pleasue to host this outstanding event on our land!

An atricle:

"The European Championship in Grappling, Pankration, and Combat Grappling was successfully organized by the Polish Wrestling Federation and the Polish Grappling Committee from 24 till 26 September 2010.

The event was brought to the lovely town of Gorlice, in the South East of Poland, and was cheered up by several cultural events to present the region's traditions and heritage.

The team leaders were for example invited to a classical concert given by the world-class pianist and native of Gorlcie, Mrs. Mariola Cieniawa, to celebrate the bicentennial of Fryderyk Chopin's birth. The President of the organizing committee, Mr. Grzegorz Brudzinski, put a lot of heart into making the participants enjoy their stay and discover his hometown. He notably arranged a craft fair with several artisans showing their ancestral knowledge and selling hand-made souvenirs and a very appreciated closing banquet with barbecue and drinks.

The competition was very professionally organized and suffered no logistic problems, except for the lack of referees that called for minor schedule changes on the second day of competition. FILA would like to thank the 9 referees present (namely Valer Papp, Zeljko Vukovic, Axel Fontaine, Lukasz Winiarski, Oleksandr Tomenko, Anton Klenshev, Valeriy Isichko, Yaroslav Isichko, and Zahar Polyak) who gave their best during 3 long days and Mr. Clint Kingsbury who actively worked to train and motivate them throughout the competition. The first day was dedicated No-Gi Grappling and registered a very nice participation of 18 countries, among which Finland for the first time in a FILA event.

The Polish team won the first place with 5 gold, 5 silver, and 3 bronze medals and showed its supremacy again after having won the World Championship and Combat Games earlier this year. To be noted the outstanding performance of the Polish grappler Maciej Polok who won the gold in 70kg at all 3 competitions. Ukraine won the second place and showed remarkable skills, although being quite new to grappling. The third place went to France with a smashing return of Romy Ruyssen who won her division and the absolute category with expeditious submission victories. The French team counted several new comers who performed very well, notably Thomas Loubersane who won the 80kg division by beating the silver and bronze medallists of the Combat Games, Krzysztof Lukaszewicz (POL) and Sergiy Sergiyenko (UKR). Grappling results

The second day of competition was dedicated to the No-Gi absolute category, to pankration, and to the Gi competition. The absolute No-Gi winner was Wojciech Lach (POL) who beat in final the excellent Ivica Tadijanov (CRO) who closed the day by winning two additional bronze medals in 90kg Gi and Gi absolute. The same team ranking applied to the Gi competition with Poland first, Ukraine second, and France third. To be noted the double title of Karolina Zawodnik (POL) who won the 65kg female division and the absolute category over Romy Ruyssen (FRA), as well as the European titles won by athletes with a long experience of FILA events, such as Jose Zapater (ESP) in 60kg, Piotr Baginski (POL) in 90kg who won the first gold medal of his career at 37 years old, and the young Marija Sola (CRO) who won the 50kg division after having made junior World Champion a month before. The pankration competition saw a little change in the team ranking with Ukraine making first over Poland and France. To be noted the excellent performance of the Ukrainian athlete Oleksandr Vysotskiy who accumulated his third title of the year after having won the World Championship and Combat Games. The French new comer, Maxime Condemi, also performed remarkably well and won the 110kg division. Pankration results


Combat Grappling (amateur MMA) took place on the last day of competition and showcased high level matches without counting any serious injury. Ukraine won its second team title over Italy and Poland. To be noted the outstanding performance of the Finnish athlete, Tom Ninimäki, who won the 70kg division after having competed in grappling (bronze medal in No-Gi 70kg) and pankration the days before. FILA was delighted to count on the first participation of a Finnish team and would like to thank its team leader, Mr. Jari Ilkka, for his support. Another new comer was team Great-Britain, led by Mr. Andrew Brownbridge, that won a silver medal in 110kg and also showed great support to the event. Combat Grappling results

FILA would like to convey its appreciation to the Polish Wrestling Federation and Polish Grappling Committee that, under Mr. Grzegorz Brudzinski's and Mr. Marcin Blicharski's leadership, hosted the 2010 World and European Championships and brought the Polish Grappling team to the be "the Nation of the Year" with a first place at all major events."

An article you can find HERE