Wrapping up the year, we can confidently say that Knyaz Club has plenty to be proud of — and plenty to strive for to get even better!

We’re glad that this year we grew, with the «Akra Sumy» club joining our ranks and opening the «Knyaz Sumy» branch with its long-time leader Borys Bashkatov. We’re also glad to welcome talented and promising fighter Oleksii Podriadchykov. Two women joined our roster as well — Alla Shovkoplias and Karyna Tymchenko!

Thanks to that growth, at the qualifying Ukrainian Championship for the 2018 national team (February 2018), Knyaz Club fielded its first full «21 vs 21» line-up — finishing 3rd in that division — along with three «5 vs 5» line-ups, where «Knyaz 1» took silver. Given that the team that finished 1st in 5 vs 5 didn’t travel to Battle of the Nations, the Knyaz «top five» represented Ukraine as «Ukraine 1» at «Battle of the Nations 2018» — and our lads put up a strong showing: 4th place on the world podium!

Knyaz Club took an active part in many tournaments and festivals across Ukraine and represented the country abroad. We confirmed twice that the «Knyaz 1» five is the strongest in Ukraine — 1st place at the all-Ukrainian festival «Stara Fortetsia» in Trostianets and 1st at the Open Ukrainian HMB Championship, the qualifier for the Ukrainian national team. We proved we deserved to represent the country as the top entry at the «Battle of the Nations 2019» World Championship, taking place in Serbia in May 2019.

Ilias Vyshutin ran a great series of professional bouts in Monaco at the WMFC «Monaco Knight Challenge» and in Tallinn at the «Reval Knight Tournament», bringing the club two more gold medals.

We’re proud of our juniors from the «Knyaz Junior» branch. Every month our roster of boys and girls grows, and they take active part in tournaments where they represent the club with honour. All thanks to dedicated training!
Our lads, as part of the Ukrainian Modern Sword Fighting national team, took 2nd and 3rd in team bouts at the European MSF Championship in Minsk in March. The Ukrainian team also took 2nd in the overall medal table!

At the international MSF tournament held as part of the «Call of the Heroes» festival, our juniors swept almost the entire podium — winning both singles and team bouts in alliance with fighters from other clubs.

«Knyaz Junior» fighters took active part in the World Championship in the HMB Soft category, which took place on 1 December in Riga, Latvia, and represented our club and Ukraine on the world stage with dignity.

At the Ukrainian Modern Sword Fighting Cup on 22–23 December in Kharkiv, Knyaz Club received the award «Best Children’s Section in Ukraine».

We also want to note that this year we opened our own themed open-air location — the authentic medieval camp «Kniazha Sloboda», with the support of Feldman Ecopark. The camp is built as an interactive park where everyone can fully immerse themselves in the Middle Ages. We ran our first summer camp for kids and a string of events at «Kniazha Sloboda».

We had a packed year and we’re moving forward toward new achievements and victories!

Thanks to everyone who was with us this year — we’re sure there will be even more of us next year!

Happy New Year!

Knyaz Club.