More than 300 boxers from more than 70 countries are competing in this World Championship, and it is also the first World Championship after female boxing was included in the Olympic program.

Monday morning and jet lag. I woke up at 4 AM. Only four hrs until we’re going out jogging. So I went out and watched the sunrise at the beach.  It is so beautiful here.

Midday we spent at the beach and in the afternoon we had some pad and bag work.

Tuesday and Lottes birthday. Happy birthday Lotte!

We celebrated Lottes birthday with a morning run, close to the clear blue sea in the beautiful morning sun. The rest of the morning we spent on the beach. After lunch Max, Robert and me took a cab into Bridgetown (10 minutes drive from were we stay). We went around for a couple of hrs and then we drank some coffee at a very nice café. This evening we have done some skin touch and pad work before dinner.

Tomorrow there will be weigh in and drawing but the fights will not start before Thursday.

Lotte, Marielle and me do now feel that we are well prepared for the World Champ that starts the 9th of September  in Barbados. This summer we have been on camp 90 % of the time and the last 10% we have been training at home. We started with the international tournament Haringey in London in June. From London we went straight to Spain. After Spain we went to Beijing and then Ukraine and then Sweden. 4th September we are leaving to Barbados. To kick some ass.

Tuesday 10.08.10

Arrival day. We started from Olympiatoppen 5.30 Am and we arrived the hotel in Nikolaev 12 hrs later the same day. We were all very tired from the flights but the day got better when we met all the Swedish girls <3 on the bus that were taking us from Odessa to Nikolaev. Nice surprise!

We are staying in the same hotel as we did under last years European and it is a beautiful place by the sea. The food is fine (if u like cookies for breakfast) but Ill stick to my protein cereals (proteinpulver + korn + vann = herlig proteingrøt).  After we arrived the hotel we had a work out and eat some dinner and went early to bed.

Wednesday 11.08.10

First day of the tournament. We woke up at 7.00 Am to check the weight. We were all in weight but Martin and me went out for a short morning run anyway (have to keep the coach in shape). 64 boxers weigh inn for the tournament. There are 11 boxers in -51kg, 10 boxers in -60, 6 in -69 and 7 in  -75. For this evening session only Lotte (-69) and Marielle (-51) are boxing, Lotte meets Ukraine and Marielle Bulgaria. Birgit and me will not box before tomorrow. Birgit will then meet an Canadian and I will box Ukraine. In Ukraine, that will be tuff!

Results:

Marielle won her fight today 9-0. She boxed very good and looked strong and sharp. Tomorrow she will box Shippen from Sweden. Shippen has silver from European 2009 so this will be a good fight.

Lotte lost her fight today 3-3 (7-9) against the Ukraine fighter Mariya Badulina. She started off good leading 3-0 after the first round but she had some hard time finding the right distance. It was a close match.

The fights can be seen here and you can read about the fights here

Tuesday 12.08.10

Marielle (-51) won her fight against Shippen today. Shippen got her shoulder dislocated in the second round. The score was then 0-0 and the judge stopped the match. Marielle box semifinal tomorrow against  Alexandra Kuleshova from Russia.

I lost my fight today. I was offensive and took charge of the ring all four rounds but i didnt get any points. Im not disappointed in my own accomplishment. This was a fight I never could have won if I didn’t nock my Ukraine opponent down. Two of the five ukraine judges had me as the winner and everyone have told me that it was a robbery and that I would have won another place.

Birgit meet the Canadian world champ today. In fourth round the judge stopped the contest after Birgit got hit bad. Birgit was though clear and wanted to continue the fight. She was really tuff and it was a strong championship debut.

Friday 13.08.10

Semifinals.

Lotte, Marielle, Martin and me started the day early with a morning run. Even though Lotte and I are out of the tournament we have no time to rest on læurbærbladene (butt). The World Championship in Barbados is only four weeks ahead. After breakfast we slept for one hour before we went to a gym in the city center of Nikolayev. Before the fights started today Lotte and I sparred and had some pad work with Martin.

Marielle was fighting a strong Russian girl today. She was fighting with all her heart but the Russian girl was stronger and Marielle lost 10-0.

My big brother Christian has always been an inspiration to me. He is eleven years older then me and when I was a little tomboy he was my hero doing kung fu. Looking up to him I started with karate at the age at eight and he is also the reason why I got into kickboxing and boxing.

He started with weight training at the age of 15-16. I guess because he was really skinny. His chest went inwards.  He started to work on Partner Gym and at the age of 23 he bought the whole gym. I don’t think our mom and dad thought this was a good idea but he worked 24/7 keeping the gym going and training weights. And if anyone is wondering: Partner Gym is my favorite gym, it has everything u need: free weights, funny people flexing their legs in underwear and sweating on the walls.

Christian has competed in both bodybuilding and fitness with many national titles. What is inspiring with him is that he enjoys being on a diet and he is always in good shape. Even off season he eats egg whites and chicken. To make it clearer, if you feel for something good to eat in the evening when watching TV would u eat 20 egg whites? He does!

I told him when I drove him and his sweet girl friend Monica to the airport: you better win this or I will be embarrassed. Off course he will never make his baby sister embarrassed! Congrats bro!

We have been training in the gym of Ulf Johansen and the training facility was very good! Earlier European Champion and two times silver in the World Champ, Henriette Kitel is the leader of the project “Female Box”. Together with representatives from the Norwegian Olympic association the goal of this project is help the girls with many aspects of training, making training plans, mental training and so on. During the week we have been working with basic boxing technique, running different types of intervals, task sparring and match sparring, intervals on bag and strength training. We also had some time to shop, play beach volleyball, scuba diving and tan at the pool. I made a lot of new friends and it was very inspiring see all the young girls being so passionate about boxing.

The only Norwegian boxer in the ring Thursday was Stian (OBK, -64 kg). He lost his match against an english boxer but the fight was tight.

There were no fights Friday but tomorrow Kristin and Yvette are fighting in the afternoon. My fight is on Sunday.

Sunday and finales

Kristin Soot (OBK -54kg) met the strong English boxer Leah Flintham in the final. Leah was boxing very offensive all four rounds and Kristin had some problems especially in the first round keeping her on the right distance. Kristin boxed better every round moving backward with some nice sidesteps, but she lost (surprisingly) the fight.

In the -60kg final I meet the two times world champion Katie Taylor form Ireland. Max and I had agreed on a very offensive tactic and I was prepared to go to war. It was four really tuff rounds and I lost 2-1 to the world champ. For me this was a victory knowing Im strong enough to perform at this level fighting one of the best female boxers in the world!

I am looking forward to 32 degrees and sun, especially when thinking about we actually had a snowstorm here yesterday. And some summer shoe shopping! I am going to work out hard to stay in shape because I have to stay ready for training camp in Ireland when I come back before the Haringey tournament (17^th -20^th of June)