On September 29 another meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Sambo Federation was held in mixed — offline and online format. The event was attended by the head of FIAS Vasily Shestakov, Roberto Ferraris, Secretary General of the organization, vice-presidents Sergey Eliseev, Alamjon Mullaev, Dalil Scally, Omar Loper, Andrey Klyamko, members of the Executive Committee Laure Fournier, César Arteaga, Tatiana Trivic, Merabi Iliadis, Chongym Moon, Nobuyuki Asai, Vladimir Yaprintsev and Vadim Rogach.
“Today’s meeting is taking place already in the new status of our organization: on July 20, 2021 in Tokyo the International Sambo Federation received permanent recognition of the International Olympic Committee. Once again I would like to congratulate all of us on this important milestone in the development of our favorite sport,” FIAS President Vasily Shestakov began his speech.
During his speech the FIAS leader told the audience that this year, despite numerous limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Sambo Federation managed to organize all the continental championships, as well as a number of international tournaments. The first FIAS President’s Cup was organized in St. Petersburg, then the first Beach Sambo World Championship was held in Larnaca (Republic of Cyprus). “I thank the President of the Sambo Federation of Cyprus Marios Andreou for the efforts he made to hold this championship,” noted Shestakov.
Then the FIAS head drew the attention of the members of the Executive Committee to the need to develop the qualification system in the work of the International Sambo Federation. “Today we must focus on increasing the number of sambo wrestlers in the world and the number of clubs, and this system is an effective tool on this path,” Vasily Shestakov stressed.
At the end of his speech the President of the International Federation reminded about another milestone event which took place in the life of FIAS. “Our federation returned to the International World Games Association (IWGA), this allows sambo to become a part of the official program of the World Games for the first time since 1993”, — concluded Shestakov.
After that Sergey Eliseev delivered his report. The President of the All-Russian Sambo Federation and FIAS Vice President proposed to introduce a number of innovations into the International Sambo Federation’s sports calendar in 2022, among them:
— inclusion of the discipline “combat sambo” in the program of the World Youth Championship among boys and juniors;
— inclusion of “combat sambo among women” discipline into the program of the World Masters Championships;
— organization of the World Cups on four continents;
— holding of the World Super Cup;
— Holding of Open Continental Cups;
— to hold on an annual basis the World Championship among cadets.
The meeting also supported the proposal to hold the first-ever International Sambo Tournament among the blind and visually impaired in the World Super Cup “Founders Memorial Sambo” in 2022.
Next up for consideration of the EC members was the question of forming the national sambo team of refugees. Sergey Eliseev pointed out the rapid changes taking place in the world due to the migration processes, stressing that these categories of people have no opportunity to represent their country of origin and country of residence at sambo competitions. “The presence of official refugee status should be the only criterion for sambo wishing to take part in competitions,” stressed Sergey Eliseev. The FIAS Technical Commission will deal with the issue of athletes’ admission to competitions.
Amendments to the international rules and the organization’s Charter were also discussed during the meeting, and a report of the FIAS Medical and Anti-Doping Commission was heard.
At the end of the meeting the participants approved the date and venue of the FIAS Congress. The event will take place on November 11 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), on the eve of the Sambo World Championship.