Kyokushin Headlines

Tagahara, Kostov, Kiyama and Kazumi on top of the World		Prizes Shared at 2nd World Cup
The second World Weight Championships (IKO 1) held in Osaka, Japan saw fans witness many exciting fights. Defending lightweight champion Piotr Sawicki of Poland went out in the quarter finals and veteran Masafumi Tagahara defeated Yuki Fukuii in an all Japanase final to take the title.		The second edition of the World Cup (IKO 2) held in Budapest, Hungary unveiled a few surprises. The lightweight title was won by Japan's Takehiro Miyano who defeated the excellent Russian Viktor Karasyuk in the final on boards.
	The middleweight section saw two of the favourites meet in the in the last eight as Bulgarian European Champion Emil Kostov defeated Australia's Garry O'Neill. Kostov then defeated Iranian Khosro Yaghoubi in the semis. He then scored and ippon for jodan hiza geri in the final against Japanese champion Hiroyuki Kidachi to become World middleweight champion. The heavyweight was the most spectacular as Russia's Sergey Osipov (left) had easily defeated three Japanese fighters to make it to the final.		Japan's Ken Kato and Shuichiro Tada took third and fourth place respectively in what was Japan's most successful category. The excellent former European Champion Paulius Klapatauskas (left) of Lithuania defeated the very strong Russian Vitaly Kolodyazhny in the final after a very close fight on boards to win the middleweight title.
Here he met the superb Hitoshi Kiyama (above) in the match of the tournament that saw Kiyama narrowly prevail. The super heavyweight section predictably saw Hajime Kazumi (right) triumph as he overcame the excellent Sergey Plekhanov of Russia in the semi final match that had him on the back foot on numerous occasions and then defeated Atsushi Kadoi in the final; Kadoi had previously defeated Russia's Alexander Pichkunov in the other semi final but was no match for Kazumi who took the title.			Japan's Takahiro Nakazono defeated another former European champion Muzzafer Bacak of Germany to take third place.
		Russia's Denis Grygoriev won the heavyweight title having defeated Kalman Kozma of Hungary, Japan's Shinji Sakamoto, Ukraine's Olexey Kasatanov and then Lithuanian Gediminas Tankevicius in the final.
	Kiyama Retains All Japan Title	Suzuki makes it two
In a repeat of last years final Hitoshi Kiyama defeated Yasuhiko Kimura in the final of the All Japan Tournament (IKO 1) to defend his title, with Shinji Adachi and Masaya Ichikawa third and fourth place respectively. Masato Ikeda, Yoshinori Ikeda, Kentaro Tanaka and Tatsuya Kato all made the top eight and what was another event of exceptional standard.		Kunihiro Suzuki retained his All Japan Title (IKO 2) by defeating old rival Sotoshi Niiho in the final with Takayuki Tsukakoshi in third and Hideaki Koizumi fourth. Strong showing from two middleweights as Yoshitaka Sato and Tsuyoshi Takezawa made the last eight along with Shinji Sakamoto and Katsuya Suzuki.
Teixeira wins Americas Cup		Yamamoto rolls back the years
Young Brazilian fighter Ewerton Teixeira was exceptional as he became the third Brazilian to win the Americas Cup. He defeated Japan's Kentaro Tanaka in the final with another Japanese fighter Tatsuyoshi Miyuki third and defending champion Sergio Da Costa of Brazil fourth. The top eight included two European middleweights with Poland's Sylwester Sypien and Bulgaria's World Middleweight Champion Emil Kostov.		The 18th All Japan Weight Tournament (IKO 2) took place and saw Kensaku Yamamoto win the lightweight title ten years after his first victory by defeating Kenji Hirano in the final. Yoshitaka Sato beat Tsuyoshi Takezawa to win the middleweight section and Yuichiro Osaka won his third heavyweight crown by defeating Takayuki Tsukakoshi.

Russians liberate Berlin		Home and Away success in Barcelona
The IFK European Championships held in Berlin, Germany saw Russian fighters prevail with the top prizes.		The European Open Championships (IKO 3) held in Barcelona, Spain heralded success for both home and foreign fighters.
The excellent Alexei Alexiev won the lightweight section as he defeated reigning champion David Godino of Spain in the semi finals and then fellow countryman Vjascheslav Lukjanov in the final. Godino then defeated the strong Pole Marius Janicki in the third place fight off. The superb Maxim Dedik (right) defeated Swiss fighter Stefan Hofer in the final with two wazari's to win the middleweight crown. Hofer had previously knocked out Russian Champion Akbolat Appaev in the quarter finals and advanced on boards against Britain's Kenny Jarvis in the semi finals. Jarvis claimed third pace with Belgium's Dennis Morkens in fourth. The heavyweight section was left open after reigning IFK World and European Champion Jakov Zobnin was disqualified. Compatriot Anzor Shikhabakhov took full advantage as he defeated former IFK European Champion Felix Ntumazah of Britain, Spaniard Domingo Quinones and then Germany's Cirit Atakan in the final to take the title back to Russia.
		The lightweight section was very competitive and saw Azerbaijan's Ramal Mustafayev defeat the Russian Andrei Alexeev in a tight semi final. Spain's Jonathan Tineo was in excellent for the whole competition form but an injury subdued him in the other semi final which led to Hossein Hussein Baharani of Iran advancing. The final saw Mustafayev launch a barrage of punches and kicks on Baharani to overpower him and crown Mustafayev champion. The competitive middleweight section was eventually whittled down to the final four competitors who were all from Spain in what was a great credit to the home squad and what was an extremely competitive section. The first semi final saw the impressive former IFK European Lightweight Champion lose to the equally on form Pep Llorens. In the other semi final Cesar Rufo overcame Edu Giner in a what was a real battle for both fighters. The final saw Llorens start very strong with some excellent combinations but he appeared to run out of energy and Rufo took full advantage to work his way back into the fight and eventually take the judges decision and the middleweight title.
Poland and Russia at home in Hungary		A strong heavyweight section had some excellent fights but ended disappointingly. The first semi final was all Iranian and due to an injury to Akbar Darvishi and Araf Sharifi progressed to the final. In the other semi final Dmitry Shabanov of Russia defeated Kazakhstan's Andrei Drokin in an exciting fight. A controversial final saw Shabanov pull up as he complained of a head punch that the judges did not agree with and the Araf Sharifi was declared the winner by ippon.
Fighters from Poland and Russia were on top in the European Championships (IKO 1) held in Szentes, Hungary. Russia's Dmitry Startsev defeated Poland's Waldemar Wiszyñski for the lightweight title. Sylwester Sypien of Poland defeated Belarus' Alexandre Goulevich to take the middleweight title. An all Russian final saw Lechi Kurbanov defeat Sergey Melyuk and Poland's Tomasz Najduch defeated Alexey Drobyazko of Ukraine to win the title for the third time in super heavyweight's.

Karasyuk, Kostov, Osipov and Pichkunov win in Russia		Eastern Europeans triumph in Madrid
	The 2nd edition prestigious Russian Open held in Ekaterinburg saw Viktor Karasyuk defeat defending champion Maxim Bakushin to win the lightweight title with Dmitry Startsev in third. European champion Emil Kostov of Bulgaria won the middleweight section by defeating Iranian Rasoul Mohammadi with Tatsuyoshi Miyuki of Japan in third. In the heavyweight section Sergey Osipov defended his title by beating Brazilian Anderson Da Silva and Alexander Pichkunov (left) defeated another Brazilian in Sergio Da Costa to gain the Super Heavyweight title that eluded him last year.	The European Championships (IKO 2) held in Madrid, Spain was a hugely competitive event with many close fights. The lightweight section was won by the impressive Bulgarian Champion Dimitar Popov who defeated the strong Georgian Solsani Kundukhasvili in the final.
			Spaniards Pascual Requena and Alberto Morras were third. Bulgarian Valeri Dmitrov won the middleweight section by defeating home favourite Francisco Jose Carpena in the final with former champion Muzaffer Bacak of Germany and Georgia's David Gejadze claiming third.
Yakunin, Dedik & Peplov complete clean sweep		In an all Ukrainian Heavyweight final Sergiy Voytenko defeated the excellent Olexiy Kasatanov, who had placed in the last sixteen at the World Tournament two years ago. The young Hungarian Daniel Torok and the very strong Gediminas Tankevicius of Lithuania took third place. The event also saw a demonstration from film star and former Kyokushin fighter Dolph Lundgren which had the crowd on their feet as the former British and Australian Heavyweight Champion carried out some spectacular breaking techniques.
The European Open Championships in the Hague saw Russian fighters dominate the event. Sergey Yakunin won the lightweight title by defeating Dutchman Rene Stigter in the final. The middleweight final was a match up of the past two IFK European Champions as Maxim Dedik defeated Dmitry Maidan with Hungary's Zsolt Zsiga in third. The menacing Igor Peplov then claimed the Heavyweight crown with a dominant performance to complete the set for Russia.
Gerritsen wins British Open		Lukjanov, Appaev and Shikhabkhov win Russian titles
Holland's Michael Gerritsen won the middleweight section of the British Open. Gerritsen was exceptional for the whole tournament and after his hardest fight where he squeezed through on boards against defending champion Kenny Jarvis, who finished third with Russias Sergey Golensikh, in the semi final he then impressively dismantled Wai Cheung in the final. The lightweight title also went to Holland as Rene Stigter defeated Britain's Kenny Mortin in the final with Russia's Roman Lugovy and Wales's Markus Shakesheff claiming third. Russia's Alexander Ibraguimov came through on weight against five time former winner Felix Ntumazah in the semis and then defeated fellow countryman Valeriy Cherevan in the final to win the heavyweight section.		At the Russian Championships held in Perm fighters from Nalchik took two titles. Anzor Shikhabakhov won the heavyweight title by defeating Ekateringburg's Sergey Trofimov in the final with reigning champion Jakov Zobnin third. Akbolat Appaev won the middleweight title and became the first fighter to have won both the light and middleweight titles, and only the second fighter along with Sergey Osipov to have won the Russian Championship at two different weights. Appaev beat Timur Dikinov, also of Nalchik, in the final with defending champion Maxim Dedik of Moscow third. The superb Vyacheslav Lukjanov won the lightweight crown with Alexei Abrosimov, second, Roman Dmitriev third.