Knife throwing competitions in Russia: Summary 2009

In July 2009, the 9th Russian Open Championship took place in Samara, and on the 5th/6th of July the "Silver Knife" competition was held in Moscow, gathering participants from various Russian regions.

Both competitions proceeded according to Unifight rules. The Unifight club is involved in martial arts in general, and also practices knife throwing. The rules are: women and the youth throw from the distances of 3m and 5m, men from 5m, 7m and 9m (10 series with 3 knives each). The best eight throwers finally compete for the "Absolut" title, with all distances thrown as a marathon. The scoring zones are concentric rectangles: 12 cm x 8 cm = 20 points, 20 cm x 16 cm = 15 points, 28 cm x 19 cm = 10 points, 36cm x 27 cm = 5 points.

Even though the target-layout and scoring differs from the Eurothrowers rules, one can try to compare: For example the 335 out of 600 points (5m distance) of Michail Sedyschev or the 520/600 (3m, Tatjana Ljubimowa) at the Russian Open are very good. The Russians carry the best results as world records. For example during "Silver Knife" the following records were registered: 3m + 5m = 570/600 +430/600 = 1000 by Elena Polynova. Quite impressive! And 370/600 at 9m by Michail Sedyschev is also a very good result.