Sambo Championship is held in Moscow

In 11 years the martial art of sambo has become incredibly popular in Russia.

This weekend Moscow is hosting the Sambo Championship of Russia. The president of the European and All-Russian Sambo Federation, Sergey Eliseyev, noted that this championship is being held in Russia for the first time since 11 years ago, in 2001. During these 11 years, sambo became incredibly popular in Russia. Fedor Emelyaninko, one of the stars of Russian sambo and his brother Alexander as well as the leaders of the Russian team are taking part in the competition.

At the Russian Championship coaches are selecting participants for the European Championships, which will be held in May, and the World Cup to be held in Minsk in November. It is the second year that the championship is being conducted in three days. The championship is being broadcast on the Sambo-TV channel.

"As for the regions, the clear leader in the last year was St. Petersburg, the second place was with Buryatia, and the third place with the Moscow team." Eliseyev said. He stressed that sambo is actively developing in all the regions of the country.

According to the head coach of the Russian team in combat sambo, Alexander Konakov, many promising young athletes will attend the championship along with the national team members. Among the well known wrestlers at the championship will be Anatoly Stishak from Saint Petersburg, twice world champion; the champion of Russia and holder of the silver medal at the world championship, representative of the Kaliningrad region Shirinli Ulvi; Ivan Davydenko, the winner of the Battle of Champions and 2011 World champion, who is the undisputed favorite in the upcoming competition in the middleweight category. Unfortunately, due to a serious knee injury Maxim Kuptsov from the Nizhny Novgorod region will not be able to take part in the competition, but Ruslan Gasanhanov, European champion from Dagestan will take part in the championship. Vaner Galliyev will be participating in the weight category under 74 kg. The Russian champion Ivanov, the double world champion Bair Omoktuev from Buryatia, the winner of the First Beijing Games in Martial Arts Murat Karimov, the champion of Europe and of the World will compete in the weight category under 82 kg. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, twice world champion, and Islam Abazov, bronze medalist of the world championship will compete in the weight group under 90 kg. Viktor Nemkov from the Belgorod region is the undisputed favourite of the group under 100 kg. In the 100 + kg category more world champions will compete: the undisputed leader Fedor Emilyanenko, his brother Alexander, European champion Kirill Sidelnikov, world and European champion Alexei Knyazev, and possibly a thrice world champion Ramazan Hadulaev. In general, the championship is expected to be a truly spectacular event.