2007 EUROPEAN JUNIORS AND MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

by Andrew Michalak

Russian Siberia welcomed us not only with warm weather but also with warm greetings and great hospitality. Tyumen was the host city of the 1994 European Men Championships and some officials, who remembered that event, could assess the great changes and dynamic development of the city, which is the business and administration center of this strong region with tremendous potentials.

Russian physique sports also showed their great potentials and most medals went to the Russian athletes.

The Championships were the good opportunity to celebrate two meaningful anniversaries: 40 years of the local “Antey” bodybuilding club and 60 birthday of Mr. Eugene Koltun – driving force and the real bodybuilding pioneer in this remote Russian territory. Now the Russian team is full of talented athletes from all parts of the country, including the whole Siberia, from Vladivostok to the Ural Mountains. Due to the outstanding coaching skills of Mr. Koltun, most of the young women athletes in the Russian Team were from Tyumen.

The Championships were organized under the patronage of the Tyumen Region Government and the EBFF officials were received by the Deputy Governor, Mr. Alexander Moor, in the Governor’s headquarter. IFBB President, Dr. Rafael Santonja, was honoured with the gold cup, presented to him by Mr. Moor.

The event took place in the modern “Tsentralny” Sport Palace, with 2000 seats full of the fitness enthusiasts, so the local fitness stars could feel the power of friendly applause. And they did very well on the stage. Russian girls won the two junior women fitness categories as well as both junior women body-fitness classes. Anna Mekhnina was unbeatable in fitness, winning also the overall title and Yulia Ushakova dominated the bodyfitness categories.

Tyumen young star also took the gold medal in junior women bodybuilding (Ekaterina Bakhrakh). Junior men fitness and junior men classic bodybuilding have their champions from the Czech Republic (Jan Jankovic and Lukas Topinka) and the last junior category, prestigious men bodybuilding open class, belonged to the new Russian star, amazingly muscular 19-years old bodybuilder from St. Petersburg, Alexey Lesukov.

The masters categories began with the next two Russian victories in master women body-fitness (Nellie Tsyshkevich and master women bodybuilding (Marina Nikotina). Master men bodybuilding began with the triumph of Sergey Biller in 80 kg class and it was later confirmed by his spectacular title in the masters overall category.

Then the stage was taken by the legendary athlete from Cyprus, Stavros Malaktos, who won the 90 kg class. He was followed by the next Russian star, Sergey Cheremnykh, the champion in the heavyweight class, over 90 kg. Special attention should be made to the last category, for bodybuilders older than 50 – real Grand Masters. 2005 world champion, Alexander Yashankin, regained the title and gave a special funny show together with his son, 35-years old Dmitry Yashankin, current world fitness champion.

Taking into account the amount and the quality of the Russian athletes, nobody could do any damage to Russia in the best team’s classification. The next places went to the Czech Republic and Poland. It was also announced that the next, 2008 European Juniors and Masters Championships, will take place in Budapest, Hungary.