Europe Championship: Day Two

The final bouts of the second day of the Europe Championship in Moscow were very spectacular. The audience will remember the perfectly mastered pickup from inside in the bout between Irina Gromova and Angela Paim-Krasovskaya from Belarus. The both athletes are World Champions, though in different weight categories. The Russian sambist was losing one point, but then she made a spectacular pickup and won the title of European Champion. Vyacheslav Mikhailin, Europe Champion from Russia, was also 2 points behind his opponent, Vasily Kuznetsov from Belarus, but then he made a clean throw by pickup from inside (remaining in the standing position) which is a rare thing in SAMBO - and Mikhailin raised his hands victoriously. Diana Alieva from Russia won the quickest victory in the final bouts of the second day. It took her only 30 seconds to conquer Marina Zharskaya (Belarus) in weight category 52 kg. In combat SAMBO (weight category over 100 kg), the audience could not see Alexandr Emelyanenko, the silver medalist of the First Sport Accord Combat Games. Instead of him, Russia was represented by Kirill Sidelnikov. In the final, Kirill conquered Martin Marinkov (Bulgaria) and brought a gold medal to Russia national team. Another important fact of the day was that Bair Omoktuev (Russia), Champion of the first Sport Accord Combat Games in Beijing, became the four-time Champion of Europe. The final protocols of the second day showed the following picture: 3 gold medals were won by Russian combat SAMBO team, 2 gold medals - by Russian men, and the Georgian team added 1 gold to its collection. Among women, two highest awards were won by Russian athletes, and one by a representative of Bulgaria.