Time to bring out the medals in Pattaya
PATTAYA — The action is heating up in the first ever edition of the FISU World University Muaythai Championship. Day 3 saw 12 bouts with athletes representing 22 universities, across 14 countries, giving the spectators much to cheer about. Moreover, quarter-finals in many divisions meant that medals-time is nearing.
The last bout was one of the highlights of the day, in which home favourite Yadrung “Chommanee” Teahiran took on Jenelyn Olsim from The Philippines. After a closely fought bout, Chommanee won on points, but Jenelyn fought all the way. Later, Jenelyn said she was proud of giving her best against a more established athlete. The crowd encouraged her with thunderous applause and surely the world will see much more of this young student athlete very soon!
In another exciting bout, Manoli Michalis from Cyprus battled three rounds against Ruslan Zayakin from Kazakhstan. Both athletes used their knees very well, and bringing cheers from the crowds, as Ruslan took the win on points. It turned out to be a good day for Kazakhstan, as his friends Almaz Sarsembekov and Abil Galiyev also won their bouts.
Almaz said: “I won against a boxer from Thailand today, my next bout is an opponent from Russia and so we expect another exciting fight. I’d like to wish good luck to everyone in the finals and let’s go forward Kazakhstan!”
The high standard of competition in the ring makes it easy to forget sometimes that these are student athletes. Hans Macatangay from The Philippines spoke of how he took a break from Muaythai last year to concentrate on this studies at San Beda College. “I missed out on training, but when I heard about this event I really wanted to make the team,” he said. “It’s been hectic because this is my last year at college, but that also means it’s my last year with FISU. I love Muaythai so I just had to do it.”
Watch these amazing student athletes in action, right ! A round-up of all Day 3 results can be found here.
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