Nordic IFMA Championship, Copenhagen 2007

The beautiful city of Copenhagen in Denmark was the host city for the 2007 IFMA Nordic Championship, featuring boxers from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark competing in fourteen action-packed bouts.

This was the third time the tournament was staged, and each time it is getting bigger and better.

Tournament summary:
Semi-finals:

Fight one of the semi-finals featured Finland’s Vappula Hannu taking on Norway’s Glen Jarlsby in a fierce battle that was all action right from the start. The fight was close but the Finnish fighter did enough to win the points decision.

Fight two saw Denmark’s own Christian Klingenberg vs Sweden’s Olof Dahlerg in a beautiful display of Muaythai technique, the hometown boy dominating with style and making it into the finals after four rounds.

Moving up the weight classes, Finland’s Aalto Ville faced Norway’s Christer Kvammen in the -81kg division. Finland’s Aalto dominated for two rounds with strong knee and elbow technique, stopping the Norwegian fighter at the end of the second round.

Moving up again in weight class, it was another Denmark-Sweden battle, this time at -86kg the heaviest division at the event, with Denmark’s Leif Christiansen facing Swedish opponent Henrik Nilsson. Leif boxed bravely against an opponent with a vast reach advantage, even managing to land a few back-spinning high-kicks. However, Henrik took advantage of his reach to win the points for all the rounds, and secured his way through to the finals.

Finals:

The first of the finals belonged to the females, starting with the -51kg division, with Annette Rusanen from Finland against Clara Leivas from Sweden. The girls showed strong technical skills and impressive stamina, which resulted in an exciting fight. Sweden’s Clara fought very well, taking home the Gold medal.

Fight six, was the female -57kg class, between Finland’s Airo Liisi, and Sweden’s Mikaela Melante. This fight too, was a spectacular fight, which Airo Liisi won, consolidating her status as champion.

Fight seven, was the female -60kg division, between Finland’s Perkkiö Katariina, and Sweden’s Lina Länsberg. A great fight ensued, with Finland’s Perkkiö winning each round.

Fight eight, was the last female event of the day, in the -71kg division. Denmark’s Kristine Larsson met with Sweden’s Magdalena Kowalczyk. Magdalena showed great skills and won all four rounds against Denmark.

Fight nine was the beginning of the male finals, kicking-off with Denmark’s Jesper Jøgensen matched, in his only fourth fight, against Swedish talent Chris Foster. Both fighters showed great skill and endurance, with Sweden’s Chris Foster winning each round.

Fight ten was the male -63.5kg class between Finland’s Hynynen Amero and Sweden’s Malik Bah. Great skill and speed was shown by both fighters, but Malik Bah was clearly wining the first rounds. However, Finland’s Hynynen Amero was to prove exceptionally talented by landing a clean spinning-back-elbow to the jaw of Swedish opponent Malik, resulting in an instant knock-out, which drew much astonishment from the large crowd.

Fight eleven, was in the male -67kg division, between Denmark’s Rachan Muhareb, and Finland’s Luukkanen Pasi. A fight with great action, the fighters displayed this beautifully, with fast kicking action and great skill. However, Finland’s Luukkanen Pasi was to prove too much for Denmark’s Rachan Muhareb, and won on points.

Fight twelve was to be Denmark’s last stand for the event, with Christian Klingenberg battling four tough rounds against Finland’s Vappula Hannu. Definitely the closest fight to call for the event, Christian’s beautiful boxing skills were not enough to keep the points against Vappula’s many low kicks. Finland’s Vappula won a 2-1 point’s decision to great cheers from the crowd.

Fight thirteen was the male -81kg class, between Finland’s Aalto Ville, and Sweden’s Patrick Levelfelt. As soon as the bell rang Aalto’s stupendous kicking speed was only matched by its sheer power. This was Muay Thai at its best, and as such Aalto proved too strong for his opponent.

Fight fourteen was the final event of the day, in the male -86kg class. Sweden’s Henrik Nilsson met Finland’s Kinnunen Miika, who was a very technical opponent. Kinnunen was able to hold all four rounds, securing victory for Finland.

Ville Aalto,-81kg from Finland was chosen as ‘Best fighter of the tournament’, having won over Christer Kvammen from Norway by TKO, and in the final defeated Patrick Levelfelt from Sweden. Aalto’s speed and power were one of the highlights of the event, whilst he also showed the greatest respect for his opponents and the sport.

Again this year Finland dominated the tournament and won medals in all their fights: 7 gold and 1 silver. Sweden also won a fair share of the medals: 3 Gold and 5 silver. Denmark took home 4 silver medals, and first time entrant Norway showed big potential for next year.

Congratulations to the Danish Muaythai Federation on a successful event, showing the continued growth of Muaythai in the Nordic region and the excitement of amateur Muaythai events in the lead-up to the 2007 IFMA World Championships.