Before the start of the main continental tournament, a press conference with the legendary Fedor Emelianenko took place in the Serbian capital. The press conference was also attended by the Vice-President of the European Sambo Federation Patrick Drid.
— Mr. Patrick, we know that there are no rooms in Novi Sad hotels, it is impossible to book a hotel. A huge number of sambo wrestlers have come to Serbia, what number of teams?
— Yes, that’s right, it’s almost impossible to find a free room. Already now we have 500 only athletes and about 200 people — team representatives. In the end, more than 800 people came to Novi Sad, this is on the level of the World Championships in terms of the number of people. Now 30 countries have passed the mandate commission
— Can Serbia become the capital of sambo?
— I hope that Serbia will become one of the capitals of sambo.
— What do you think, what chances do Serbian sambo wrestlers have at the Championship?
— The coach of the Serbian national team Ivana Jandric will better answer this question. In my personal opinion, our sambists will bring 5-10 medals.
— Is it hard to organize such a huge competition, if we are talking not only about adults, but also about other age categories?
— Of course, it is very hard. I remember that we have already organized the World Championship in 2020 and now the government of our country is helping us a lot in organizing and holding the championship and the European Championship, I am sure we will do well this year.
— For the first time in the history of European Championships there will be competitions among the blind and deaf, are you going to develop this direction in Serbia in the future?
— Yes, we want to develop this direction, but our budget is very limited. But we have the desire.