European Championship: Day First

The final fights of the first day of European Championship in Moscow were preceded by the opening ceremony, the main topic of which was honoring of legendary sambists - Champions of the First Open European Championship of the year 1972 in Riga. This memorable for SAMBO history event occurred 40 years ago. 40 years during which SAMBO has been developing and improving, so nowadays the words of former FILA President Roger Coulon (France) he said back in 1967 on the first international SAMBO tournament in Riga "Future belongs to SAMBO" have become an indisputable fact. When honoring the legendary sambists - participants of the European Championship in Riga, Latvia SAMBO Association Vice-President Mr. Vsevolod Zeleny from Riga welcomed the athletes, and Sergey Novikov, Vladimir Nevzorov, Cheslovas Ezerskas and Konstantin Gerasimov were awarded commemorative souvenirs and gifts. The hall raised up to welcome the legendary sambists who, undoubtedly, represent pride and glory of SAMBO. Athletes inspired by the presence of such famous persons among honorary guests, who were also accompanied by another SAMBO legend - Fedor Emelyanenko, were eager to fight for the right to raise to the top of the podium of the Jubilee European Championship. During the dynamic, spectacular and hardcore fights the first Champions in the three female and three male weight categories as well as the three weight categories of combat SAMBO were identified. The representatives of the Russian school found no matching competitors among the combat sambists during the first day of competition. The team led by Alexander Konakov won three gold medals and reasonably expects to get a team gold medal. One step short of the gold stayed the representatives of Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Bulgaria. The beautiful female representatives of SAMBO displayed grace, legerity and SAMBO technique wonders equal to their beauty. The Ukrainian sambists were outstanding, and in the end they won two gold medals and one silver medal. The Belarusians took a lead in the male sport SAMBO: they already have two gold medals and one bronze medal. Tomorrow a chase for medals will go on: female sambists in the categories of 52, 64, 80 kg and male sambists in the categories of 57, 74 and 100 kg will enter the mats of "Druzhba" Moscow Universal Hall. The combat SAMBO representatives in the weight categories of 62, 82 and more than 100 kg will also participate in the competitions.