20.01.2021
"...It is sad how much disrespect, malice, and slander is around us. How some usurp the right to the correct opinion, to the only correct view of life... of the world around us. As if they forgot that monochrome was already here... It doesn't matter what color they "paint" the world with... if there is only one, the world ceases to be what enriches and pleases us... a large colorful garden in which we all have our place to live... and the right to our own opinion... even if someone might not like it..."
"... Armwrestling was a sport where we were one big family. We felt good in its embrace, exchanged experiences, and were happy to be together again, at least for a while... This sense of participation vanished at the last competition (EC)..."
As I mentioned in the previous article, after the unification of both groups, the atmosphere changed. However, I never realized that this change might have mirrored the change in society. Only now... after reading the words above...
But let's return to armwrestling. Our domestic scene saw no changes in the domestic calendar. Individual rounds of the SNLP were hosted by Zvolen, Senec, Banská Štiavnica, and Žarnovica. The number of participants stabilized at a respectable figure of around 80. The exception was the competition in Banská Štiavnica, where for the first time at a domestic competition, more than 100 armwrestlers presented themselves - 117. After the qualification in the local cinema, the best of them appeared on the main stage of the Salamander Days and fought their final matches in the amazing atmosphere of the crowded Trinity Square.
Among regional competitions, the New Year's Eve Arm (Silvestrovská ruka), the High School Strong Arm (Silná ruka stredoškolákov), and the Iron Arm (Železná ruka) had already become traditions, and for the first time, we organized the Junior Grand Prix (predecessor of the Visegrad Junior GP) in Trnava.
Silvestrovská ruka moved to Trnava for the first time and was held in a standard way for the first time - meaning double elimination - rather than the classic "New Year's Eve" style. The reason was a surprisingly large number of participants, which would have made it impossible to organize the competition using a round-robin system. Silná ruka stredoškolákov expanded again, taking place outside the Bratislava Self-Governing Region for the first time. High school students also tested their strength in Revúca.
The Slovak Junior Championships were held at the traditional venue in Ivanka pri Dunaji and were once again a showcase of new talents, among whom J. Michalička stood out significantly.
The Senior Championship was hosted by Revúca. At the Slovak Championships, we saw the return of the injured J. Germánus, who appeared in good form and added two more Slovak champion titles to his record.
In addition to competitions, in 2004 we organized two extremely successful events - referee retraining and an armwrestling coaching course. Especially the coaching course was a great success, and according to the participants' evaluation, its level was very high. The course had two parts - a theoretical one held in Bratislava and a practical one held in Senec. It was significant for us that after the course, all participants (11) obtained the qualification of 3rd class armwrestling coach.
Beyond our borders, our armwrestlers measured their strength against opponents at the well-known Ready Go Rochefort, Golem's Arm, and Nemiroff World Cup. In Belgium, our athletes won four first places (B. Zajvald, R. Málek, R. Dobrovič 2x), three second places (M. Ruman 2x, B. Zajvald), and one third place (J. Chudý). At Golem's Arm, we were even more successful, winning 7 first places (M. Komárňanský 2x, B. Zajvald 2x, M. Ďalák, R. Málek, K. Tóthová), 2 second places (M. Ďalák, K. Tóthová), and two third places (M. Hanes, P. Racek). In Poland at Nemiroff, there were no medals for Slovakia, but in the excellent competition of the world's biggest armwrestling stars, P. Spusta took a respectable fifth place, having defeated the famous Russian Kokoev. Senecká ruka again had excellent competition. The biggest stars of the event were the Ukrainians, who took almost all the first places. R. Babayev, A. Pushkar, and V. Ilyushina were already among the absolute world elite and were rightfully the highlight of our event.
The European Championships were held in Poland, in the seaside city of Gdynia. The championship was preceded by the EAF congress, where we wanted to approve all the changes we had prepared and implemented in "our old" EAF. This mainly concerned competition management, competition categories, and some organizational changes. However, the joint meeting did not bring any approval; on the contrary, the differences in opinion between the two groups came to the forefront.
The first "cherry on top" was the refusal to manage the competition using "our" approved system. After a several-hour argument, the organizer pushed through the use of their own untested system, which naturally ended in a fiasco. The first day of the competition ended as late as three in the morning of the second day. After the computer system collapsed and endless protests ensued, the first competition day had to be finished using paper brackets. From the second day, the Slovak team took over, and everything ran as it should, without problems.
We scored again at the tables. Among the juniors, Ľ. Jagnešák succeeded by winning two gold medals. However, he was the only Slovak on the podium, which, to put it mildly, disappointed us.
Jagnešák was also given the chance to fight in the senior category. His bronze medal proved it was the right move. Two more bronze medals were earned by V. Mihoková and B. Zajvald. The gold medal was won by J. Germánus. His qualification match with the Russian Kozayev was unbelievable and had an aftermath at the "green table". First, the Russian lost his nerves and insulted a referee in a previous match. For this reason, he was not even called for the match with Germánus, and our athlete won without a fight. The disqualification enraged Kozayev; after it was announced, he literally flew onto the stage, grabbed the armwrestling table, and threw it into the audience as if it were a feather. It was incredible luck that the flying table did not hit anyone, and this incident ended without injury. The only consequence was a fine for the Russian team and a two-year ban for Kozayev.
The World Championships in 2004 were held in exotic South Africa. Despite the financial demands, we sent a strong team to southern Africa with a desire for good results. The organizers placed the championship in a tent on the beach. Several participants commented on the organization with the words "it was a circus," and it did not reach the organizational level that a World Championship should have. In terms of sports, it was an average championship, but extremely successful for us. Slovaks won two golds (Ľ. Jagnešák 2x) and two silver medals (K. Tóthová 2x) at the World Junior Championships. The seniors were successful as well. Gold was won by J. Germánus, silver by V. Mihoková, B. Zajvald, Ľ. Jagnešák, J. Germánus, and bronze by R. Dobrovič, R. Tomaga, and R. Málek. In addition to medals, we also gained many point-scoring placements in the top six, which brought our delegation to third place in the senior team competition. The performance of our representatives at the World Championships in Durban thus ranks among the most successful in history.
Despite it being a successful year for Slovak armwrestling, the joy of the achieved results was overshadowed by a tragic event at the end of the year, when Slovak representatives K. Tóthová, T. Tóth Jr., along with their father and coach T. Tóth, tragically died in a car accident. This unfortunate event caught us unprepared and lingered in the memories of many of us for a long time.