Here’s a great glimpse at the first yoyo / kendama event in Belarus, thanks to a full report from Demmik at the Russian YoYo Association. The level of play is what we’d consider “up-and-coming”, and we’re really looking forward to seeing these players their scene continue to grow.
NOTE: the article below was translated by Google Translate, and then I attempted to edit it a bit to clean up the English…my apologies in advance if any of the information is off!
Music is NSFW.
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The long-awaited Belarus Skill Toys Festival has taken place in Minsk!
For two days, despite bad weather, players from Minsk, Gomel, and other cities met up at the Museum of Modern art, where the festival was held. The main event organizer was SkillToys.by, a group that has been working towards developing yoyos and other skill toys in Minsk since 2011.
The first day of the event was devoted entirely to kendama and yoyos. Competitors performed for a panel of judges from Moscow’s RAYY (Russian Association of YoYo) including Stepan Kosintsev, Mikhail Dementyev, and Moscow Kendama Challenge winner, Andrew Duchesse.
The festival began with the kendama competition. The Challenge was won by Sergey Nikolaenko from Minsk! And Alexander Abramov from Gomel won the Best Trick competition, and received a commemorative kendama, hand-painted in the colors of the Belarus flag.
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- Sergey Nikolaenko from Minsk won the Kendama Challenge.
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- Alexander Abramov wins the Best Trick Contest in the kendama division.
The next competition was a 1A Ladder competition, won by Sergey Nikolaenko, with Ilya Babaev in 2nd Place and Timur Kahanovich in 3rd Place.
1A Ladder Competition Contestants at the 2013 Belarus Skill Toys Festival
Then came the 1A Freestyle competition..results and video below!
1A Freestyle Results
- Nikita Danilov (Minsk, 13) – 96.54
- Stas Priemko (Minsk, 14) – 90.46
- Stas Metelskiy (Minsk, 15) – 61.85
- Maxim Raychenok (Minsk, 16) – 55.86
The second day of the festival was fully occupied by masters Fingerbordinga, and the curtain event a contest for Hvatatoru. (EDITORS NOTE: I can only assume this means fingerboarding and…something else?)
The winners got prizes from sponsors – Gyroscope GROUP , AERO-YO and YOYOFACTORY .
It is noteworthy that despite the small number of participants, the festival was visited quite a few guests and spectators.Many of the participants were heavily supported by parents or friends. BTRC filmed a good report from the event:
For other yoyo-related video presentations, visit the channel of Vadim Golub.
More photos from the 2013 Belarus Skill Toys Festival can be seen at the club museum.