Meet
Alexander Sokolov
Alexander Sokolov - John Brzenk- Vasiliy
Kuznetsov
Hello Alexander, how long have you
been armwrestling?
My sport career began in 1994. Before it, from six years old, I had been going
in for competitive gymnastics (under the guidance of Olympic Champion Alexander
Dityatin), then power lifting and boxing.
How did you get started in armwrestling?
In 1994 I was offered to participate at city competition on armwrestling. In one
of the first duels I had my arm hurt and before every new fight I ran to the
toilet and put my arm into the cold water. I qualified for the finals where I
had to meet with a very serious opponent. This duel brought me the first win in
my career and the broken arm to my opponent. After that I couldn't train for a
long time because I felt guilty for him. But I wanted armwrestling very much and
I did it at my work. Then I was a cook in the Georgian restaurant. Having
learned about my hobby the Director of restaurant began to arrange duels. I
armwrestled with every guest from Georgia and defeated everybody. But once I was
defeated by a guy one hundred kilograms in weight and after that I returned to
the club for training. At the end of 1994 I took part in the National
Championship and became the last. It hurt me very much and I began to train more
persistently. In 1996 I won the title of Saint-Petersburg Champion in weight
under 58 kg once more and now I have been keeping this title firmly.
1994 Goodwill Games Armwrestling Tournament, St.Petersburg, Russia, 7th
place, right hand, 75 kg
1996 Russian National Championship, Ekaterinburg, Bronze
medallist, 55 kg
1997 Russian Championship, Vladikavkaz, 1st place, right hand, 50 kg
1997 European Championship, Poprad, Slovakia, 1st place, left hand,
50 kg
1997 WAF World Championship, India, 2nd
place, right hand, 50 kg
1997 World Wristwrestling Championship, Petaluma, USA, 4th place,
left hand, 60 kg
1997 Golden Bear Armwrestling Tournament, Moscow 2nd place,
right hand, 58 kg
1998 Russian Championship, Pervouralsk, 4th place,
right and left hands, 55 kg
1999 Russian Championship, Shatura,1st place, right hand and 2nd
place, left hand
50 kg
1999 European Championship, Belgium, 2nd place, left hand and 3rd
place, right hand, 50 kg
1999 WAF World Championship, Tokyo, Japan, 1st place,
right hand and 2nd place, left hand, 50 kg
1999 Golden Bear Armwrestling Tournament, Moscow, 3rd
place, left hand, 50 kg
On the 19th of December St.Petersburg Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev congratulated
Alexander for his victory at the World Championship. On the 24th of December the
popular city newspaper "Sportivnaya" included Alexander Sokolov in
five best sportsmen of the city. It was announced in the bar
"Tribunal" during the traditional tournament on armwrestling between
journalists.
On the 27th of December 1999 Alexander Sokolov was included in ten best
sportsmen of Saint-Petersburg. The best ten was named at meeting of
Saint-Petersburg Committee for Physical Culture and Sport. Alexander became the
only representative of not Olympic kinds of sport in this list over the whole
history. Undoubtedly it's a great success of Saint-Petersburg armwrestling. In
January of 2000 Oleg Nilov, a deputy of Saint-Petersburg, congratulated
Alexander Sokolov. Their meeting was concluded by an
improvised armwrestling match.
The main sponsor of Alexander Sokolov is the company "ROSINKAS"
where he works as a collector. Besides expenses for participating at
competitions, "ROSINKAS" pays to Alexander a monthly grant and
premiums for his successful performances at competition.
In 2000 Alexander decided to move up to a heavier weight category, under 55 kg,
and there achieve the same high results as in 50 kg. According to records on the
11th of February the match was held between Alexander Sokolov and Sergey
Kuzhetsov, a winner of tournament "Cup of Dream" in weight 65 kg, in
the bar "Tribunal" with supporting of TM "Beer Sokol". The
formula of the match consisted of three duels till two defeats of one among
sportsmen. Sport television program "Know ours" was reporting
from this match. With the score 2:1 Alexander won which confirmed that he is
able to armwrestle with heavier sportsmen..."
Many thanks to Vasiliy
Kuznetsov for his help in preparation of this article.
