On November 4th-7th the World Kettlebell Championship was held in Milano Italy, this was hosted by the IGSF (international girevoy sports federation). The main organizator of this championship is Oleh Ilika who is a world class master of sport himself.
The event was attended by 20 countries and had over 150 athletes competing, this was the biggest attendance this championships has had so far. The events where traditional biathlon for men with 32kg and women snatch with 16kg. There was also an open section (Italian open) for men in traditional biathlon with 16kg or 24kg and women with 8kg and 12kg. the event also had categories for juniors (under 23 years) and veterans (over 40 years). and also 1min/2min/3min sprints with jerk and snatch.
Day 1 started with weigh in at the Ramada hotel, all athletes had from 9am-5pm to get weighed in and registered, that evening we all met at the sports arena and there was a formal opening ceremony, this was a very professional event and allot of work had gone into making this a world class competition. Each country had flags and was assigned a person to carry there name of the country out with them as we paraded out into the main floor. There was good sportsmanship throughout the comp with all athletes and countries applauding each country as they where announced.
This was then followed by speeches by Oleh and other representatives, unfortunately everything was either in Italian or Russian and so it did leave those speaking English a little lost, but this was to be expected. However it was a problem when it came to getting information on when events and times athletes would be on, and also we where unsure of exactly how the scoring was calculate, and how exactly the groups where divided. I would certainly suggest that next year they have a printed timetable with events and times on it to give athletes an approximate time and day of when they will competing, due to inability to get information by English speaking representatives there was allot of confusion on what events will be held on what day and this seemed to change constantly, this left countries like Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia, USA, Denmark who's only medium to communicate was in English at a complete loss of what is going on. However this was only a very small detail and the very professional well set up venue is something that i hope IGSF is very proud off, Oleh was an incredible host who was very welcoming and went out of his way to help athletes whether it be in registering or behind the scenes with actual kettlebell lifting, he was and is a very good example of a true master of his sport!!! His energy must be limitless for the amount of work he had to do, and by the end of the event the only sign of this on him was his inability to talk as he lost his voice from the constant talking over the last few days.
The 2nd day started with men's traditional biathlon and it was jerk with 32kg first. starting with the lighter males moving up until the heavier men at 90kg+
This event saw many great athletes, with some big numbers being put on the board. Paulos Georgiadis did 131 jerks which was the top score for 32kg jerk and 165 snatches. There where many levels of athletes from WCMS competing to new athletes competing for the first time, Eddie Sheehan from kilkenny kettlebell club was a new athlete to a world championships and the first male from Ireland to ever compete in world championships with 32kg, he did well with a personal best of 65 jerks and 111 snatches, he was only 4 reps from his MS in IGSF rankings. Mark Stapleton also from kilkenny kettlebell club, Ireland and the only other male from Ireland to have ever competed at a 32kg level (Berlin open 2010) competed at the 24kg category and did a personal best with 102 jerks and 107 snatches and attained his CMS level with IGSF rankings. At the moment Mark and Eddie are the only two athletes from Ireland that have and can compete at this level.
There was some big numbers thrown out by the women in the 16kg snatch event like Ivana Britvec head coach of the Croatian team (giryatrija-kettlebell team Zagreb) who did a personal best of 204 snatches. There where many famous coaches that attended this event like Pantelei Filikidi who also competed in the veterans event and did 123 jerks and 211 snatchs with 24kg, and Gregor Sobocan who recently did him MS numbers under WKC, he had many athletes from Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland. and who has started up a new EUROPEAN GIREVOY SPORTS ASSCOIATION and this was the first professional championships that his new association and athletes got to show what they can do.
Day 3 had events like the open biathlon for men and snatch for women where held, also veterans event in biathlon, this was followed by medal and award ceremony.
The National Standings for the World Championship are:
1.UKRAINE
2.TATARSTAN
3.ITALY
4.RUSSIA
5.SLOVENIA
6.REPUBLIK OF BELARUS
7.USA
8.IRAN
9.DENMARK
10.KAZAKHSTAN
11.CROATIA
12.GREECE
13.LATVIA
14.POLAND
15.FRANCE
16.IRELAND
17.GREAT BRITAIN
18.UZBEKISTAN
19.ESTONIA
20.GERMANY
Individuals can be found soon online through the IGSF website.
Thanks to Mark Stapleton for the info (Kilkenny, Ireland, www.kilkennykettlebellclub.com).
Last weekend in Ventspils (Latvia) was held European Championship among juniors till 18 years old. Athlets of weight classes 53 and 58 kg used kettlebells 16 kilograms, athletes of other weight classes used ketllebells 24 kilograms. Girls competed in snatch with 16 kg kettlebells.
The first ever kettlebell sports competition in Ireland was held in Kilkenny city on the 24th July. This was hosted by Kilkenny kettlebell club, run by head coaches Mark Stapleton and Eddie Sheehan. The event was the traditional biathlon jerk and snatch, and to end of the day a strongman(32kg-36kg-40kg-44kg-48kg-56kg), strongwoman(20kg-24kg) this event was more for the public to try promote the sport and for everyone to have some fun at the end of a long day.
June 1-4 In Belgorod (Russia) was held final of Russian Championship of girevoy sport. Ivan Denisov returned to the sport and won both disciplines: long cycle and biathlone.
In Siauliai city (Lithuania) 14-15 May, were held IUKL European Championship and Junior European Championship. May 16 the kettlebell lifting was presented in the International Sport Games "SAULES MIESTAS". 
In Urssu city (Russia, Tatarstan) on May 1-2 was held international competition among youths (1992-1994 years of birth). In this competition were participated more then 100 boys and girls from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan. There were 7 weight categories for boys and 3 - for girls. 
In 
April 2-4, according to the calendar of the 
The competition was held at Kettlebell Athletica in Melbourne. So big was the lure of the event that a couple of people even came from interstate to attend. One of the biggest problems with kettlebell sport in Australia is that their population is very spread out over a very large land mass, so it's very difficult to get everyone together for a meet.
