Interviews with winners and medalists on the 2nd day of the 2017 FIAS President's SAMBO Cup

The FIAS President’s Cup was held on September 2-3 in Donghae, South Korea. For two days, spectators in the city’s municipal arena watched fights in 5 weight categories in men’s Sport SAMBO, 3 for women and 4 in Combat SAMBO. The competition results have already been published on the FIAS website. But you’ll feel the emotions of the tournament winners and medalists right now. The General Sponsor of the tournament is Rosneft oil company.

Daniela Poroineanu (Romania), winner in the women’s 60 kg weight category:

"Winning this tournament was great, of course, but I mostly considered competing in it as training and preparation for more serious competitions. My coach asked me to work on some techniques during the Cup, which I did. I not only take competitions seriously, but also the preparation for them, because SAMBO is everything for me, it’s my life. SAMBO gives me a lot, first of all strength, both physical and mental.”

Kaiyrberdi Aidynbay (Kazakhstan), winner in the men’s 57 kg weight category:

"This medal means a lot to me. The road to victory wasn’t an easy walk; just the opposite, it was hard. This isn’t my first award. I already won a medal at the Kazakhstan President's SAMBO Cup in Astana, but this prize is very important for me. Now I have a new goal – a gold medal at the Youth and Junior Championships in Serbia.”

Otabek Olimov (Uzbekistan), winner in the men’s 62 kg weight category in Combat SAMBO:

"Winning at the tournament wasn’t easy for me. My opponents were strong, and quite frankly, there are no weak sambists here. SAMBO is a family affair for my family: both my father and brother have dedicated their lives to SAMBO. I've been involved in this sport since my childhood, and I can’t imagine life without it. SAMBO is not only a big part of my heart, but also a profession. I work at the Higher Police School in Uzbekistan and teach combat training and SAMBO.”

Jaehee Jang (South Korea), winner in the men’s 74 kg weight category:

“This is a great success for me. In all my sports career, I’ve never had such a strong performance. Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of injuries in my sports career, so this medal really means a lot to me. But this is already an intermediate goal. The next one is to be the best sambist in Korea and win first place at the World Championships.

I’d like to add separately that the lessons of SAMBO have changed my whole life. Earlier I was involved in judo, but I couldn’t achieve any real success. After I took up SAMBO, I realized this was really my sport, the sport of my life.”

Jinho Lim (South Korea), silver medalist in the men’s 74 kg weight category:

“I've been practicing judo since high school. But after learning about SAMBO last year, I started practicing this martial art, although it was really hard to choose one thing, because each sport has its own advantages. Still, I take part only in SAMBO competitions today. The style of SAMBO suits me better physically, and I feel more comfortable with it.”

Shao-Kang Li (Taiwan), bronze medalist in the men’s 74 kg weight category:

"I waited a long time for the chance to compete in this tournament and dreamed of a medal in SAMBO. I finally did it. Taiwan only recently began to participate in international SAMBO competitions, and a bronze in the FIAS President’s Cup is a great achievement. I’m a student at Taiwan Sports University. I'm sure my medal will play a big role in the future development of SAMBO in Taiwan. I also plan to compete in the World Championships in Sochi and show everything I can do.”

Zhi-Cheng Shen (Taiwan), bronze medalist in the men’s 82 kg weight category in Combat SAMBO:

“Winning a medal means a lot to me. But I'm not going to stop at bronze medals. In the future I’ll only aim for gold medals, because now my motivation is even stronger. I really like Combat SAMBO, because of all the martial arts that I tried, like boxing, MMA and kickboxing, Combat SAMBO was the closest to me. It was in SAMBO that I discovered my favorite technique — throwing an opponent after going for the legs.”