“The weekend consisted of hard and honorable fights and great friendships”

Sep 5th and 6th 2015 was really hot in California! Alameda County Fair Grounds Pleasanton CA hosted “HMB California Classic” presented by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco. Organizers tried to make this year event much better then ever and they did it!

On “HMB California Classic” there were fighters from USA and Russia.They met in categories “1vs1″ and “5vs5″.

It was international tournament, so there were a lot of work to prepare everything in really high level.
David Dixon, organizer of “HMB California Classic” tournament(USA): “Organizing an event of this level was a lot of work. This was the first international event I have been involved with planning. However I am lucky that I have a lot of great people in my local fight club and people from the other US fight clubs that came who helped a lot with the event. Everyone that I asked stepped up and did their part – it was a real team effort. But to answer plainly defently not easy (however I think we learned a lot how to make it smoother next time), But well worth the effort the experience was great!

It was really the toughest fighting that can be in the USA. So this event came to the end with such results:

5 vs 5

1 place – “Bern” (Partisan 1) (Russia)

2 place – “Iron Phoenix” (USA)

3 place – “Ursus” (USA)

There was a mixed singles tournament as well… And in the end organizers got such results:

1 place – Derek Gabreski (Iron Phoenix, USA)

2 place – Lisa Galli (Ursus, USA)

3 place – Lorenzo Sorentino (Ursus, USA)

As member of orgteam said, this tournament left a lot of impressions and David Dixon, (organizer of “HMB California Classic” tournament) hope to do the “HMB California Classic” tournament much better every year.

David Dixon, organizer of “HMB California Classic” tournament(USA) : “I believe that while this was a great step forward if we have the opportunity in the future to do this event or an event like it in the future it we can make it even better. While the amount of fighters that made it was smaller than I would have hoped the fighters that did make it gained a tons of amazing experience. If you want to learn to be the best you have to fight the best. I feel like we made a great connection with the fighters from “Bern” and besides the great fighting there was awesome exchange of culture and brotherhood. Part of the awesome nature of this sport is also the community and sharing experience. I think they got a nice sample of California life and culture and we learned a lot from them about not just fighting but their life and culture. Most important take home was that even though we come from different parts of the world this sport is so much a part of us we have much in common. They spoke of their “warrior spirit” it’s something we seek to cultivate too”.

Tournament and participants were also cheered by Russian fighters.
Evgeny Gladkov, fighter of the full-contact medieval battle club”Bern”: “American fighters are good-hearted people, great guys. The organization of the tournament at a high level too. We were lucky with rivals, because Americans are good fighters. We have nothing to teach them, they are perfectly able to fight and can teach anyone themselves. Next year I would like to come and participate again.”

Orgteam believe that if known far in advance teams from Canada and Mexico would be able to make it next year they really expressed a lot of interest and we have a great friendship with both of those teams.

David Dixon, organizer of “HMB California Classic” tournament(USA) : “I hope that we can do this event again or something similar next year. The experience is extremely valuable and enjoyable. I also hope that we in the US can make it to more tournaments outside the americas than just “Battle of the Nations” as there are other great opportunities to fight overseas that I hope in the future we can make it to. I would like to see this event happen again next year and would be up for planning it again. I believe it would continue to grow this is only the start of what could be a great annual tournament. Also it would be easier now to plan since everyone involved with the planning learned a lot along the way”.Also orgteam prepared awesome prizes for participants.

David Dixon: “We had medals for both 5s and singles and also a tournament trophy cup for first we also had raffles for fighters where weapons were up for winning.Of course, both fighters and orgteam got something much more valuable then just material prizes.

David Dixon: “Basically the weekend consisted of hard and honorable fights and great friendships built over what we all have in common. It was nice to have the time with our russian collegs, to get to know eachother much better and for many of the fighters that have not yet gone over seas to meet them. I hope that the US and Russian teams can continue to build apon this event and our friendship and continue to work together to make the sport better”.

Photo and by Victoria Poh

Find more photos at https://goo.gl/y84oo4

HMBIA News