POSTED: Saturday September 4th 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Athletes embrace World Combat Games

Beijing, Sep 04: The SportAccord World Combat Games are coming to an end.

Over 1000 athletes from both Olympic and non-Olympic sports took part. About the same number of volunteers helped to make the event come true.

Having never been to a multi-sports event before, many athletes seem to be having the time of their lives during these eight days. "I am impressed by the size and the scope of the Combat Games. I am competing since more than 20 years now, and have been to three world championships, but nothing compares to this here," says Thomas Le Cuyer (USA), bronze medal in 70 kg Men's Grappling. And he adds: "This week has been great. I made a lot of friends from all over the world. We are different, but we all like the same thing, combat sports. That unites us."
"I know that our athletes are very proud to be here and to be part of this special event," says Espen Lund, Vice-President of WAKO, the World Kickboxing Federation. Stephen Fox, Secretary General of the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur joins: "The World Combat Games are our major event this year, even if it is the first edition. It is more important than the World Championships."

Medals were won by 60% of the NOCs taking part in the Games, and also by not traditional combat sports nation. Russia leads the medal table with 18 gold medals, followed by the Chinese hosts (15) and Ukraine (7).

Participants in the Combat Games received anti-doping information delivered by the SportAccord Doping-Free Sport Unit. Doping Controls were conducted in all of the competitive sports based on both athlete's performance (rankings) and random selection.

The many activities of the Cultural Program were very popular with the athletes and were also a means to highlight the values and traditions of the martial arts and their contribution to modern society.

Global interest in the World Combat Games 2010 has been sufficient, with more than 30 broadcasters from all five continents either accredited or interested in getting content from host broadcaster CCTV. In order to reach out to the young and diverse fans of the combat sports and martial arts all over the world, the event was especially promoted on the internet and social media and achieved over 30.000 viewers so far on the Combat Games channel on Youtube, as well as many followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook.

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Keywords · Combat Games · Martial Arts · Beijing · 2010 · Jet Li · Aikido · Judo · Karate · Kendo · Kickboxing · Sambo · Sumo · Taekwondo · Wrestling · Wushu · Hein Verbruggen · SportAccord · Sportaccord

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Name: Iwona Lapinska
Organization: SportAccord
Email:
Phone: +41 (0)21 612 30 70
URL: http://www.sportaccord.com

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