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Love for the Middle Ages

Since 2016, on the basis of the JINR Stadium "Nauka", there has been a Club for historical fencing and medieval battle called the "JINR Team". Probably, many of us have seen photos of spectacular competitions in social networks, in which the fighters of the Club have become participants. But few people know about the history of sport and the achievements of the citizens of Dubna. With a request to tell about this, the editors turned to Head of the Club Ivan Dotsenko.

Talking about the history and achievements of the Club, it is first necessary to dwell on the concepts of "historical fencing" and "HMB - historical medieval battle".

Historical fencing is a full-contact sport where fighters dressed in replicas of medieval armour strike each other with unsharpened steel models of medieval swords. The battle takes place one on one, the winner is the fighter who inflicted more blows on the opponent in a certain time.

Historical fencing appeared in our country in the distant 1990s and gradually has evolved into HMB - a historical medieval battle.

HMB is a new sport that is a full contact battle on unsharpened steel medieval weapons. The fighters are dressed in full armour that like weapons is made according to historical patterns. Strikes are applied to any part of the body (according to the restrictions fixed in the rules), both striking and wrestling techniques are allowed.

HMB has appeared as a sport relatively recently, it appeared in 2009, but already in 2010 the first World Championship was held in Khotyn (Ukraine), where the Russian team became the world champion. World Championships are held annually in different European countries. The Russian team is the most titled, as a rule, it takes prizes in all categories. At the moment, there are the following nominations: 1 vs 1, 5 vs 5, 12 vs 12, 30 vs 30, a battle of banners (all participants are divided equally and fight wall to wall). Today, more than 30 countries nominate their national teams to participate in the World Championships. Teams of the USA, Great Britain, Ukraine are traditionally very strong. They are the main rivals of our team. The basic rule is to fight while standing on your feet. If the fighter falls, that is, touches the ground with the third point of support, he is considered to be out of the fight. To win in a team battle, one has to remove all the fighters of the opposing team from the battle.

In addition to the World Championships, there are also numerous competitions of HMB clubs both in Russia and abroad. Recently, in July of this year, a HMB rally took place - the largest event in Russia. The ancient city of Vyborg in the Leningrad region hosted more than 200 athletes from all over the country. Athletes fought in all nominations and the battle of banners became the final chord of the event, where the fighters met in a big battle about 70 to 70 that is considered to be a record in recent times.

The first training in historical fencing started in Dubna back in 2005. At that time, our Club was called "Dubna Team" and was based at school No. 4. In 2016, we changed our location, JINR provided the Club with a comfortable room at the Stadium "Nauka". Today, we are called "JINR Team".

Armour fighting is not a cheap sport. Good armour costs about 100 000 rubles and is made to order in special workshops that are quite numerous in Russia. Due to the high cost of equipment, clubs in Russia are few compared to other sports. In large cities, clubs have 20-30 people and in most small cities there are no HMB clubs at all. Dubna is an exception; we have a fixed team of 8 fighters. But this is clearly not enough to participate in major competitions.

Therefore, the "JINR Team" plays as part of the largest Russian Club "Bern" that has existed since 2002 and is the dominant force in our steel sport. Fighters of the "JINR Team" are winners and prize-winners of numerous HMB competitions. And two of us, Aleksey Sokolov and me are the 2019 world champions in the 30 vs 30 nomination. To become a world champion is the main goal of most athletes in any sport and HMB is no exception in this regard. The gold medals of the World Championship motivated our small team from Dubna. Training takes place twice a week at the Stadium "Nauka" (in winter in the gym) and on Sundays we go to Moscow to train with the world's strongest fighters at the Club "Bern". Typically, training lasts about two hours and includes a warm-up, practicing sword strikes and wrestling techniques. There are fighters of different levels in our Club, we have newcomers every year, but not everyone can withstand the harsh world of medieval battles. But those who stay, as a rule, join our friendly team for many years. For example, I have been engaged in armour fighting for 18 years and some veterans from Moscow and St. Petersburg - for more than 20 years.

We invite everyone to try themselves in a new steel sport, including girls. The Russian women's HMB team is also the best in the world. For the first time, beginners are given equipment for training. All you need is a desire to train and a love for the Middle Ages. And we guarantee you a lot of good hits and positive emotions.