Moscow hosts Russian Sambo Championship

by VK

Moscow is hosting the Russian Sambo Championship. Sergey Yeliseyev, President of the European and All-Russian Federation, said that the championship was first held 11 years ago, in 2001. Sambo has become a very popular type of martial arts here in the last 11 years. “The spectators are primarily impressed by the visual appeal. Such people as Fedor Yemelyaninko, who has been a leader of mixed fights for over 10 years, have played an important role in popularizing sambo. Fedor Yemelyaninko himself, his brother Alexander and all leaders of the Russian national team, who have become champions of the world and Europe last year, will take part in the championship”.

A Russian Championship involves shortlisting of a team for the European Championship, which will be held in May, and the World Championship, which will be held in Minsk in November. “We adopted a new system of international competitions last year: we hold three days of simultaneous competitions of men, women and combat sambo. People of three weight categories compete every day. Such system is of interest to spectators and, I believe, the European Championship would be held in such format”, Yeliseyev hopes. “We got a new Internet channel called “Sambo-TV” for direct broadcasts of all notable competitions, including state championships. It is great that those who cannot attend the competitions may watch them live in the Internet”, he goes on.

“Concerning regions, Saint-Petersburg is the obvious leader, followed by Buryatia and Moscow. Rounding up the results of federal districts, the Saint-Petersburg District leads, followed by the Volga District, then the Central Federal District and then Moscow. But, generally, combat sambo is developing in all federal districts, we hold shortlisting rounds for the World Championship in all district of the country”, Yeliseyev says.

Alexander Konakov, Senior Coach of the Russian National Combat Sambo Team, said that many ambitious young wrestlers will take part at this stage of the championship, apart from the national team. Some of the well-known sambo wrestlers in the championship are Anatoly Stishak from Saint-Petersburg, who won the World Championship twice; Shirinli Ulvi from Kaliningrad, champion of Russia and owner of a silver medal at the World Championship; Ivan Davydenko, winner of the Champions’ Fight, World Champion of 2011, a favourite at the upcoming medium-weight wrestling. “Unfortunately, Maksim Kuptsov from the Nizhny Novgorod Region would not be able to take part due to knee injury, but Ruslan Gasakhanov, European Champion from Dagestan, will wrestle in this weight category. Vener Galliyev, World Champion twice, will compete in the weight category of 74 kg, Russian Champion Ivanov will compete in the weight category of 82 kg, Bair Omoktuyev, twice European Champion from Buryatia, who switched from the 74 kg to 82 kg weight category, winner of the First Beijing Games; Murat Kerimov from Moscow, Champion of the World and Europe. In other words, we expect very interesting games in the weight category. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, twice World Champion, and Islam Abazov, a bronze winner of the World Championship, will be part of the 90 kg group. Victor Nemkov from the Belgorod Region is the obvious leader of the 100 kg category, Sergey Khramov, four times World Champion, may take part. We have five World Champions for the 100+ category: absolute leader Fedor Yemelyanenko, his brother Alexander, Champion of the World and Europe Kirill Sidelnikov, Champion of the World and Europe Alexey Knyazev, and, possibly, three times World Champion Ramazan Khadulayev. The championship, in general, is expected to be spectacular, in terms of notable wrestlers and new bright athletes, because regions are very responsible in training wrestlers for the championship”.