Romani community member Václav Sivák won gold in the Kickboxing Senior World Championships held over the weekend in Sarajevo, defeating a challenger from Kazakhstan in the final match to become the first-ever Kickboxing World Champion from the Czech Republic. The contest was organized by the prestigious World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO).
That international kickboxing organization certifies amateur kickboxing competitions. Its governing body manages the sport at amateur level.
“History has been made! On 25 October 2019, Czech Kickboxing entered the annals of that sport,” the official website of the Czech Union of Full-Contact and Other Martial Arts posted to its official web page.
“Václav Sivák has become the first Czech citizen in history to become World Champion in the male category of the K-1 discipline,” the official Czech website for the sport reported. The young Romani athlete winning the gold has also been designated the biggest success in the history of Czech Kickboxing to date by other web pages that cover this martial art.
“Vašek Sivák did it, he became the world champion in WAKO Kickboxing. Big congratulations, this is the biggest success in the history of Czech amateur kickboxing for a male!” the web page FightNews.cz reported.
“He has confirmed his super-talent,” FightNews.cz said of the win. Sivák has many successes behind him in the K-1 discipline, in which he is now the reigning champion.
In 2017 Sivák became the Junior World Champion of Europe, and in 2018 he won in the male category at an international championship in the Czech Republic. Sports media outlets report that he is one of the biggest talents in this discipline in the Czech Republic.
Sivák grew up in an excluded locality, and it did not take much for him to end up on a downward path. His father guided him toward sports, though, which saved him from the street and allowed him to find his own way forward.
Currently Sivák is the reigning champion in the K-1 discipline for men weighing 67 kg or less. Last year he won gold in the junior championships, for example, at a WAKO competition in Skopje, Macedonia in the K-1 category for men weighing 63.5 kg or less.
