In a special interview for the website eurosambo.com Sergey Eliseev, president of the European and All-Russian Sambo Federations, talks about the upcoming plans for the new sports season.
— What are the European sambo community’s future plans?
“We are in the middle of summer. Many federations have already finished their sports season: someone went on holiday, someone has been still training or someone has already started its preparation for the peak season, the World Sambo Championship. All athletes train at their own pace to finish well the season.
I would like to note that this year has been a challenging one. A lot of important events were held, but we still have many competitions to come.
In August the first edition of the European Union Sambo Cup will be organized jointly with the European forum in Riga (Latvia), initiated by Vsevolods Zelionijs president of the Latvian sambo federation. I believe that the event will be a success.” says Sergey Eliseev.
“The next competition of the European calendar is the International tournament ‘Memorial Mikhail Burdikov’ founder of the World Sambo Academy in Kstovo (Nizhny Novgorod region). This is the second edition of the tournament, which traditionally organized together with the international sambo camp for athletes. Last year all the athletes truly enjoyed participating in the sports event. I hope that many national teams will take part in the international camp this year as well. These events provide our athletes with valuable training and competition experience and also offer the possibility to share their experience with other athletes.”
“In September we also invite the European sambo athletes to participate in the International tournament ‘Memorial Tschocheli’ to be held in Tbilisi, Georgia. The competition just started last year and the level of organization has been progressively growing, making the competition among athletes stronger.
I believe that this year many national teams will be able to come and train as in the preparation stage before the world championships. Athletes will prove their mastery at the threshold of the peak season.
A bit later, the World Sambo Championship among Youth and Juniors in Novi Sad (Serbia) and the World Sambo Championship in Sochi (Russia) are scheduled in the sports calendar. I suggest that many national federations will take part in these events as well.”
What could we expect from the World Sambo Championship?
“During the World Sambo Championship, besides the competitions, the election congress of the International Sambo Federation will take place. This is the reason why we expect many guests and athletes. We wish that everyone will enjoy the organization of the competition, and surely the participation in the event. We will do our best to arrange the best conditions for the athletes, coaches and presidents of the national federations in sports and cultural programme. The participants will enjoy the competitions on the one hand, and they will have a chance to visit Sochi Olympic facilities on the other hand. In case of good weather, it will be nice to swim in the sea, have a walk in the mountains, visit Krasnaya Polyana or go skiing. In my view, a lot of people will find it interesting, especially those who haven’t been to Russia yet.
I also would like to say that we try to arrange the possibility to host the athletes of the national teams in terms of accommodation and board at the expense of the Organizing committee.
In my opinion it would be a great contribution to the development of sambo. More athletes will come to participate in the championships and will make the competition much stronger.” says the ESF president.
“The International tournament ‘Baikal Cup’ in combat sambo will be staged for the first time on September 1-4 in Irkutsk among other events of the sports calendar.
Today, besides the european, world and continental championships there are few competitions in combat sambo at the international level for combat sambo athletes. There is no such specific tournament for combat sambo in the world.
To stage this tournament, Siberia was chosen as the competition venue thanks to its location in the middle of the continent. The athletes from Asia and Europe could easily come to take part in this event. I hope that this significant event will be a milestone in combat sambo.
This tournament will be classified as ‘Tournament of category A’ in perspective, and then, possibly it will become the Combat Sambo World Cup”.
— What are the changes in the European Sambo Cup regulations to be held in Autumn for the second time in Madrid (Spain)?
“During the discussion of the European Sambo Cup’s organization, we decided to try an experiment by introducing 3 combat sambo weight categories in order to make the format similar to the European Championship. So, this year the following categories in combat sambo will be introduced: 62 kg, 82 kg, and 100 kg.”
— Why did you start with three categories?
“It won’t be easy to organized participants in every weight category in combat sambo. First of all, it will be difficult for the national federations. That is why we decided to start with three categories. We will see how this competition will be run this year, including the quantity of the competitors and number of participating countries. And then, we will do some alterations in the organization, for instance, in number of the weight categories, or we will change nothing. So, we will see in the future.
It is necessary to try different format of the competitions and hold experimental tournaments varying weight categories and team competitions. It allows us to have a feedback and consider the impact on sambo development. All positive effects on our sport and its popularization will be recommended to the International Sambo Federation.” shared Sergey Eliseev.
— What’s going on in the national sambo federations?
“Today a lot of different events happen in the national sambo federations. We have started to publish the news on the website eurosambo.com, but we are going to cover more activities of the federations. I would like to request national sambo federations to inform us about their activities, in order we would be able to share the news on our website.”