With the delivery of bronze medals to Hugo Estrela (Full Contact -51 kg) and Catarina Dias (Full Contact -70 kg), Portugal ended its participation in the WAKO European Kickboxing Championship this Saturday. The Portuguese entourage says goodbye to Antalya with a gold medal (André Santos), a silver medal (Tiago Santos) and five bronze medals (Catarina Dias, Hugo Estrela, Ricardo Hilário, Pedro Castro and Victor Nogueira), in a setting that leaves the Portuguese coaches quite satisfied. “The general balance is positive, in 17 athletes who brought seven medals. In the specific case of the ring, the athletes with a very high level, it is in a competition in which the level is increasingly high. We know that, afterwards, the performance of the athletes depend a little on the draw, but they were all very positive”, began by explaining Raúl Lemos, responsible for the ring aspect. This idea, moreover, was shared by Pedro Telles, technician on the tatami: “It was a very positive performance, in addition to the medals we also qualified two athletes for the European Games, which was one of our main objectives. the Combat Sports Federation [FNKDA] arrived in such a short time. We just didn’t take two gold medals for details in the Tiago Santos fight and we still lost other fights in the last seconds. Looking at the mat, we brought four athletes and won two bronze medals, 50 percent success rate. The medals were achieved in the ‘Masters’ category, which, despite having a lower level, at WAKO presents great difficulties. At the senior level, athletes [Fabrice Fernandes e Filipa Dias] I just didn’t go through the details. We are on the right path and we have to continue, there is a promising future”. The duo also addressed the difference that still exists between the FNKDA, entities that want to protect kickboxing in Portugal, and the Portuguese Federation of Kickboxing and Muaythai, which is currently not recognized by WAKO “The only problem is with the Portuguese Institute of Sports and Youth. However, that’s ‘another five hundred’ and the lawyers will handle it. There is no reason for the current federation to be leading kicboxing when it was expelled from WAKO, the world’s top governing body for the sport. All others are commercial entities. All these details will be proved and we look forward to a great future. I await with open arms all those who want to be part of this structure, which can only be the only one in Portugal”, Vincou Pedro Telles.

Raúl Lemos, along the same lines, explained the dynamics that would allow athletes to participate in this competition in Turkey: “We don’t have any kind of support from the State, it’s the athletes, with the help of the FNKDA and Carlos Ramjanali, who take care of everything to come here. Things are not resolved at a political level and we have a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), we are waiting for it. We will continue to help athletes and do our job. We will have several competitions to the year, even in Spanish territory, and I believe we are going to grow. We want this situation to be resolved quickly”