Invincible or in other words: Larysa Soloviova. The 38-year-old Powerlifter from Ukraine won her fourth gold medal in a row at The World Games. Lifting a combined total of 605kg was more than enough to for her to be crowned as World Games Champion in the women’s Middleweight Final again. Anna Ryzhkova from Russia, winning silver, lifted just 552.5kg. But a “just” does not seem appropriate when talking about more than 550kg. However, Larysa Soloviova aided a clean sweep for Russia – they won the titles in the Women’s and Men’s Lightweight final.
Invincible or in other words: Siu Hong Wu. But that’s not a story just about sport. “Hong” from Hong Kong China won the Bowling Men's Doubles Finals Bronze Medal Match. Together with his teammate Michael Mak, he beat the Mexican double. It was a medal worth waiting for - in 2009, Siu Hong Wu won a silver medal winner at The World Games in Kaohsiung.
Hailed as one of bowling’s brightest young stars, Hong was on to great things when adversity struck and he was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer in 2014. Hong underwent an operation and two rounds of chemotherapy and luckily for him (and for the sport of bowling) he made a full recovery. Once he resumed his training, Hong won the coveted Bowling World Cup in Las Vegas in 2015. The World Games 2017 were his first return to TWG after beating cancer.
What also happened on the fourth competition day? A lot happened at the Boules venue Centennial Hall – Pergola. But still not enough. Twelve medal events were scheduled for Monday. Just eight could be concluded. The thunderstorm on Sunday struck the schedule. Due to problems with one of the courts, four finals had to be cancelled. Two of them, the Raffa Singles matches, without awarding medals.
Italy (Fabio Dutto and Diego Rizzi in Men's Petanque Doubles and Nicola di Guiliano and Gianluca Formicione in Men’s Raffa Doubles) added two more gold medals to its tally. Russia had 22 gold medals before the evening sessions, but Italy claimed rank 2 with 13 gold medals.
Brand new on list of countries with medal winners is San Marino. In the Raffa Doubles Enrico Dall'Olmo and Jacopo Frisoni collected a silver medal, San Marino’s first ever in World Games history. Germany’s Simon Albrecht climbed up - all alone and just here in Wroclaw - three times to the podium. After two gold medals on Friday and Saturday, speed skater Simon Albrecht achieved silver on the road in Men’s Trial 200, only being beaten by Ioseba Fernandez from Spain. Belgium’s Bart Swing won his first gold medal in the Men's Elimination Race over 20km.
Finally, the Gymnasts Dong Dong and Xiao Tu jumped on the top of the podium in Men's Synchronized Trampoline - not for the fourth time but nevertheless for the second time. As in Cali 2013, the two gymnasts from China performed on Monday in an invincible way.
