“I beat them like horse thieves”

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Yani Zaharia returned from the World Kempo Championship in Portugal with two belts, after half a year on the bar due to a serious eye injury.

The “Tricolors” ranked first among the nations at the World Kempo Championship, where athletes from 62 countries competed.

Yani Zaharia, one of the boys of the head of the Romanian Kempo Federation in Romania, Amatto Zaharia, returned to a large-scale competition after a break of half a year, caused by a fracture of the orbital bone.

The athlete from Romania’s national kempo team added two world belts to his record, in the Full Kempo and Submission events.

“I beat them like horse thieves. I am very proud of myself, that I managed to place on the first step of the podium twice in two different events. We had 8 matches”, says Yani Zaharia, double world champion, at the World Championship in Portugal.

At the World Cup in Caldas da Rainha, 2,500 athletes from 62 countries were present. Yani admits that he had emotions after a half-year absence from competitions.

“You can’t help but have emotions, even if you’re in training before or during the competition. Whoever says he has no emotions is not telling the truth,” Yani said.

At the end of the 19th edition of the World Kempo Championships, Romania’s national kempo team achieved an extraordinary performance, 1st place among nations. With 307 points, the “tricolors” beat Spain, 268 points, Portugal, 116 points, Indonesia, 66 points and Algeria, 65 points.

And this time, the best results, on the 18 competition surfaces, were obtained by the seniors from CS Rapid Bucharest (Mirel Drăgan, Alina Pascu-Boroș, Cherim Ender, Dinu Sebastian, Alexandru Chirică, Robert Cotoanța, Ana- Maria Mavru, Ionuț Robert Florea and Costi Pașca), CSA Steaua Bucharest (Aurel Pîrtea) and CSU Știința Bucharest (Yani Zaharia, Cătălin Bodîrlă, Gabriel Boroș, Marvin Belecciu, Alexandru Irimia, Claudiu Dimache, Ștefan Mihăilă and Alessia Jecu).

The surprises of this edition were Timeea Ștefănescu (CS Fujin Vulcan), last year European champion, now world champion, Ionuț Iancu (SCM Craiova), Ștefan Anculescu, Ionuț Mitrea, Constantin Pașniciuc (CSM Poloiesti), Marian Neculai (CS Cetate Dojo), who together with Ioana Hanaș, Miruna Karina and David Sferle (CS Crișul Oradea), managed to obtain very good results, awarding their world titles.

Athletes from CSM Baia Mare, Tiger Kempo, Kempo School, BCB București, Moșnița Nouă, Dinamoviști Fight, CST Alexandria, Atac Roșiori and Amatto Budokan also contributed to the victory of Romania’s national kempo team. At the World Cup in Portugal, Romania was present with 65 athletes.