W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003

W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 (Paris)
The poster for W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 (Paris)
Promotion	W.A.K.O.
Date	October 21 (Start) October 26, 2003 (End)
Venue	Palais des Sports Marcel-Cerdan
City	Paris, France
Event chronology
W.A.K.O. European Championships 2002 W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 (Paris) W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 (Yalta)

W.A.K.O. World Championships 2003 in Paris were the joint fourteenth world championships held by the W.A.K.O. and the first ever to be held in France. The other (joint) world championships were to be held in November of the same year in Yalta, Ukraine. The event was open to amateur men and women with approximately 780 athletes from 63 countries across the world taking part.^[1][2]

There were four styles on offer at Paris; Full-Contact, Light-Contact, Semi-Contact and Aero-Kickboxing. The other W.A.K.O. styles (Low-Kick, Thai-Boxing and Musical Forms) would be held at the second event later in the year at Yalta.^[3] By the end of the championships, Russia was the strongest nation in terms of medals won, with Hungary in second and Italy in third. The event was held between five days at the Palais des Sports Marcel-Cerdan in Paris, France, starting on Tuesday, October 21 and finishing on Sunday, October 26, 2003.

Full-Contact is a form of kickboxing where strikes above the waist are allowed to be thrown at full force, with wins usually occurring either via knockout or by a point's decision. As with most other forms of amateur kickboxing all contestants must wear head and body protection. More information on the rules can be found at the official W.A.K.O. website.^[4] At Paris the men had twelve weight divisions ranging from 51 kg/112.2 lbs to over 91 kg/+200.2 lbs, while the women had seven ranging from 48 kg/105.6 lbs to over 70 kg/+143 lbs. Notable winners included a young Muamer Hukić (more commonly known as the cruiserweight boxing champion Marco Huck) who added to the gold he won at the last European championships, and Ruslan Karaev who would have a number of fights (and win several titles) with the K-1 organization. Other notable winners included Fouad Habbani who won his third straight gold medal in Full-Contact at a W.A.K.O. championships, while Olesya Gladkova, Oksana Vasilieva and Oksana Vasilieva had all won gold medals at the last Europeans. By the end of the championships, Russia was by far the strongest nation in the style, winning nine golds, four silvers and two bronze.^[5]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-51 kg	Ayup Arsaev	Miras Brimzkanov	Abdel Fettah Boukhalfa Utkir Hudayarov
-54 kg	Mirbek Suiumbaev	Filip Ehsan	Alexandre Bossuyt Nurbolat Rysmagambetov
-57 kg	Fouad Habbani	Ali Albisheh	Marat Egeian Mustapha Ben-Sihmed
-60 kg	Artur Tazleian	Yuri Romanko	Daniel Martins Tarik Ben-Sihmed
-63.5 kg	Alexandru Pogorelov	Arild Mikarlsen	Zsolt Nagy Orazmuhammed Byashimov
-67 kg	Jere Reinikainen	Roman Pechuk	Eldin Raonic Sidi Koite
-71 kg	Igor Kulbaev	Ruslan Batrutdinov	Sindre Walstad Azamat Naurzbaev
-75 kg	Nermin Basovic	Tomasz Walenski	Markus Hakulinen Azzedine Mhiyaovi
-81 kg	Maxim Voronov	Alan Kotsoev	Christophe Lartisien Marcin Rogozik
-86 kg	Marco Huck	Anatoliy Nosarev	Slobodan Marinkovic Taranali Karifala
-91 kg	Ruslan Karaev	Gabor Meiszter	Corneliu Rus Łukasz Jarosz
+91 kg	Yaroslav Zavorotny	Seyed Ali Mirmiran	Ruslan Avsov Vecheslav Sepchuk

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-48 kg	Olesya Gladkova	Veronique Legras	Vania Gusiiska Aliya Boranbaeva
-52 kg	Oksana Vasilieva	Fatma Akyüz	Ivona Roca Mette Solli
-56 kg	Lidia Andreeva	Barbara Plazzoli	Valentina Chevchenko Zsuzsanna Szuknai
-60 kg	Anna Kasprzak	Julia Nemtsova	Helene Horlaville Nadine Lemke
-65 kg	Maria Karlova	Alena Fashutdinova	Marija Ristovic Csilla Bodo
-70 kg	Karolina Lukasik	Heidi Hartmann	Marjut Lappalainen Nives Radic
+70 kg	Ilhame Aissaoui	Irina Smirnova	Daniela Lazzareska Karen Dews

Light-Contact is a form of kickboxing that is less physical than Full-Contact but more so than Semi-Contact and is often seen as a transition between the two. Contestants score points on the basis of speed and technique over brute force although stoppages can occur, although as with other amateur forms head and body protection must be worn - more detail on Light-Contact rules can be found on the official W.A.K.O. website.^[6] The men had nine weight divisions ranging from 57 kg/125.4 lbs to over 94 kg/+206.8 lbs while the women had six ranging from 50 kg/110 lbs to over 70 kg/154 lbs. Though not full of household names there were several previous winners with Dezső Debreczeni, Zoltan Dancso, Szilvia Csicsely and Nadja Sibila having picked up golds at previous events. By the end of the championships Hungary were the strongest nation in the style, winning four gold, two silver and two bronze medals.^[7]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-57 kg	Dezső Debreczeni	Maxime Aysin	Nikolay Kuznitsov Lucien Gross
-63 kg	Jorge Coelho	Sándor Szántó	Mickael Guccione Danylo Stepanenko
-69 kg	Marcel Fekonja	Christian Bauer	Christophe Rebrasse Vitaliy Yeremenko
-74 kg	Lionel Picord	Mikhail Sorin	Sebastijan Causevic Oliver Stricz
-79 kg	Zoltan Dancso	Marat Pukhaev	Hugo Matos Andrea Primitivi
-84 kg	Petr Kotik	Andrej Sande	Mike Béla Owen King
-89 kg	Uros Urleb	Juso Prosic	Wojciech Myslinski Roman Roev
-94 kg	Emmanuel Mendy	Michal Wszelak	Dmitri Gerasimov Agostino Pavesi
+94 kg	Uri Abramov	Wojciech Szczerbiński	Drazen Glavas Dzevad Smajlovic

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
-50 kg	Szilvia Csicsely	Anna Krivognza	Julita Tkaczyk Viktoriya Bezpecna
-55 kg	Tonje Sørlie	Alessia Gaietto	Christina McMahon Joanne Kolowrat
-60 kg	Klara Marton	Gloria De Bei	Kerstin Kössling Monika Florek
-65 kg	Sanja Stunja	Chiara Mandelli	Sabina Sehic Szilvia Linczmaier
-70 kg	Nusa Rajher	Ivett Pruzsinszky	Larysa Berezenko Evelis Boscolo
+70 kg	Nadja Sibila	Oxana Kinakh	Giulia Campagno Ivana Didovic

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Aero Kickboxing is a non physical competition, involving participants using a mixture of aerobic and kickboxing techniques in time to specifically selected music. There are no weight divisions like in other forms of kickboxing in W.A.K.O. but there are separate male, female and team categories, with additional events being introduced in Paris, with a male and female 'with (aerobic) step' and 'without (aerobic) step' being added. Also, unlike the contact categories, an individual country was allowed more than one competitor, with the team event even having several teams from the same country. More information on Aero-Kickboxing and the rules can be found on the W.A.K.O. website.^[8] Although the Aero-Kickboxing competitions in Paris were not well documented with many of the winners being absent from records, Italy did particularly well, winning three gold and two silver medal.^[9][10]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Individual with Step	No medallist recorded	No medallist recorded	No medallist recorded
Aero Individual without Step	Bruno Manca	Daniel Gärtner	No medallist recorded

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Individual with Step	Laura Fiori	Beata Krassoi	No medallist recorded
Aero Individual without Step	No medallist recorded	No medallist recorded	No medallist recorded

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aero Team	Team Italy I	Team Italy II	Team Croatia

Ranking	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1	Russia	10	8	5
2	Hungary	4	3	5
3	Italy	3	6	4
4	Germany	3	3	3
5	France	3	1	4

• List of WAKO Amateur World Championships
• List of WAKO Amateur European Championships

• WAKO World Association of Kickboxing Organizations Official Site Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine