On April 27, the Open Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Championship of Lviv Region in memory of the defenders of Ukraine took place!
The event was attended by about 200 participants, including not only athletes from Lviv region, but also teams from Volyn, Ternopil, Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
Lviv athletes won 17 gold, 23 silver and 28 bronze medals.
For the team of our region, these competitions became a qualifying stage for the Ukrainian Championship, which will be held on May 17-19 in Ternopil. And the Ukrainian championship will be a stage of the national selection for the World Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Championship.
The competition honored the memory of Ukraine’s defenders, including Bohdan Kryl, Dmytro Pashchuk, Pavlo Kostiuk, Andriy Gerasym, Volodymyr Nestor, Mykola Bedyk, Yaroslav Hryvach, Mykola Zabavchuk, Roman Bochkovsky and other heroes who gave their lives for independent Ukraine.
“Since 2012, MMA has been recognized as an official sport in Ukraine. This makes it possible to hold qualifying competitions, train athletes and ensure their further participation in national and international events. At the same time, due to the rapid development of mixed martial arts (MMA), a large number of organizations have been formed in Ukraine and in the Lviv region in particular, which are now actively conducting unauthorized competitions. These organizations have no legal grounds or permits to do so. Therefore, for our part, we always emphasize that in order to work within the legal framework, as well as to preserve life and health, all MMA events in the Lviv region are held exclusively in cooperation with the regional branch of the MMA Federation of Ukraine,” said Roman Khimyak, head of the Youth and Sports Department of the Lviv Regional Military Administration.