The first Scandinavian Open ended with fighters from Norway, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Kenya, Italy and Lebanon. Total 90 fighters participated in Fullcontact, Semicontact and Musical Forms.
The promoter Daimi Akin has organized successfully many professional events in Oslo, but this was his first big tournament. Besides both national and international fighters from Norway we had strong teams from both Finland and Poland, not to say we had a big team from Kenya, a really enthusiastic team and actually with good fighters. Also 1 fighter from Lebanon was present.
The event was very professionally organized even though the promoter would have liked more fighters present. But all in all it was a good start and we really hope to build up this event as an international classic tournament as a good final test for fighters preparing for the WAKO championships. The national television was present and covered live some of the finals.
There were many spectacular fights both in the preliminarymatches and in the finals. On of the biggest surprise was Jere Reinekainien, the two times WAKO World Champion who lost in the semifinal against Norwegian Andreas Lodrup. Lodrup again lost to Christian Kvatningen from Norway, meaning that Norway have strong fighters in -71 kg. Watch out Coimbra participants!
Thank you to all the teams which came to Oslo and a big thanks to promoter Daimi Akin and his Fighter Kickboxing Club who really worked hard to make this WAKO event a success.
Espen Lund
WAKO Vice-president
