On July 15, 2010, Radio86 write "Lithuanian knights in bloody battle at Expo". 1410 Lithuanian and Polish knights beat the Teutonic crusaders in what became known as the Battle of Grunwald.

On Thursday 15 July 2010, hundreds of Chinese witnessed a small group of Lithuanian knights fight each other with the same types of swords, axes and armour as their forefathers used 600 years ago. This time it didn't happen in the heart of Europe, though. This battle was fought in the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

 

The celebration of the Battle of Grunwald, or the Zalgiris Battle as the Lithuanians call it, was marked over several days. That meant the hobby knights from Vilkatlakai club had a tough schedule, with performances every hour.

 

Eager to record the medieval battle with cameras and mobile phones, the Chinese audience lit up the otherwise dim Lithuanian Pavilion with flashlights from all directions. In one performance on Wednesday this photographic eagerness led to an accident. One knight called Zveris, meaning "the beast", got hit on the lip when he was blinded by the reflection of flash lights in a fellow knight's shiny armour.An ambulance had to take Zveris to the hospital, where he was patched up.

 

The course of the combat is not choreographed beforehand. In other words, the knights are fighting for real, though the weapons are not sharp. So, a hit, some blood and a row of stiches does not scare a Lithuanian knight. On the real 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, July 15, Zveris was again ready with armour and weapons.