Beating with skill

At the World Taekwondo Championship, Belarus captured one medal — Georgii Gurtsiev brought silver to our team 

Georgii Gurtsiev finished as silver medallist at the 2025 World Taekwondo Championship held in China. For the 25-year-old athlete, this is not his first global success: in the previous world championships, in 2023 in Baku, Gurtsiev also claimed silver. Reflecting on his achievement on social media, he wrote: ‘I am proud of the result and grateful to everyone who helped me achieve it’.

In 2023, Georgii Gurtsiev’s name was not yet familiar to many Belarusian supporters. The taekwondo athlete, who was born in Vladikavkaz and began training there, moved to Belarus a year before. Since then Gurtsiev has established himself as a leader of the national team: winning medals at international tournaments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and China, and becoming the first Belarusian taekwondo athlete to compete at the Olympic Games; in Paris he reached the 1/8 finals.
At the world championships in China, Gurtsiev (competing in the 58kg category) racked up victory after victory: first — over Sumit Bist of Nepal, then — over Vitaliy Geladze of Georgia, Kuei-En Pan of Chinese Taipei, and Nouridine Issaka Garba of Niger. In the semifinal, the Belarusian taekwondo practitioner faced Olympic silver medallist Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan and triumphed. Alas, Gurtsiev lost to Iran’s Abolfazl Zandi in the final. The President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC), Viktor Lukashenko, congratulated the athlete on his successful performance, noting that it stood as a bright example of perseverance and hard work. “Over the past two years, you have twice ascended the podium at the world championships, which testifies to your talent, professionalism and determination. We are proud of you and confident that new victories and significant achievements lie ahead of you,” the NOC President addressed Gurtsiev. 
At the 2025 Wuxi World Taekwondo Championship, alongside Georgii Gurtsiev, nine other Belarusian athletes competed. Raman Turavinau and Yulia Vitko reached the 1/8 finals; Valeriya Smychkovа, Maksim Bandarevich, Yahor Kazlou, Sarmat Tcakoev, Daniil Yurkou, Artsiom Plonis and Artsiom Babakhin were defeated in the second round of the competition in their weight categories. However, many of these athletes had already made headlines weeks before the world championships by performing strongly at the 3rd CIS Games in Azerbaijan. There, Belarusian taekwondo athletes won seven medals, including three golds, two silvers and two bronzes. Yulia Vitko from Lida and Raman Turavinau from Vitebsk emerged as event winners, while two other practitioners from the Vitebsk taekwondo school — Valeriya Smychkovа and Maksim Bandarevich — took second and third places.  

READY TO TAKE OFF 

Yesterday, the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships kicked off in Pamplona, Spain, running until November 9th. In a sense, the CIS Games in Azerbaijan were a warm-up for the Belarusian trampoline jumpers, who secured six of seven possible gold medals. Belarusian athletes headed to the world championships with a broad and highly capable squad. It includes two-time Olympic champion Ivan Litvinovich, who recently won the Trampoline World Cup overall title for the second consecutive time, Paris Olympic silver medallist Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, two-time European champion Yana Lebedeva, who has changed her nationality from Russian to Belarusian. Stanislau Yaskevich, Andrei Builou, Sebastian Stankevich, Zlata Miniakhmetova, Katsiaryna Yarshova, and other athletes are also ready to perform at their best.

By Tatiana Litvinova