Reflections of the Winners of the 2nd Day of the World Youth and Junior SAMBO Championships in Tashkent

The World Youth and Junior SAMBO Championships took place in Uzbekistan on October 11-13. Sambists from 30 countries of the planet were fighting for the title of the strongest on SAMBO mats in Tashkent. The medal winners of the tournament's second day share their emotions and impressions in their interviews to the FIAS website The general sponsor of the tournament  is Rosneft Oil Company.

Santiago VALLECILLA (Colombia), a bronze medal winner in the up to 52 kg weight category among juniors (M):

- I`ve just learned that my medal was the first award ever for Colombia at the World Youth SAMBO Championships. Of course, I am very happy with this fact.

I believe that my participation in two international training camps that took place at the International SAMBO Center in Colombian Cali helped me a lot. I was training there under instruction of Dmitry Maximov and Mikhail Martynov. They are great coaches who have explained a lot of details to me: various techniques, and how to feel in a stance, and how to build tactics for a fight. Of course, they and my regular coach helped me a great deal.

This year, I will not participate in international SAMBO tournaments any more. Instead, I will devote my time to training in order to win new medals for my country in the future.

Gavhar KOSIMOVA (Uzbekistan), a silver medal winner in the up to 56 kg weight category among juniors (W):

- I regard a silver medal as a success. For me, this is a good start, but the silver cannot be anyone's goal, of course; a goal is always the gold. And sooner or later I will certainly win it.

I lost in the finals, probably because I didn’t figure my strength quite enough, was a bit lacking in “physics”. I was matched against my opponent for the first time, so I did not know what to expect from her.

I want to thank the fans who supported me - it helped me to believe in myself, gave me strength.

Yaroslav DAVYDCHUK (Ukraine), a gold medal winner in the up to 90 kg weight category among juniors (M):

- I wish to thank my coach, the fact that I've won should be credited to him. He gave me the correct guidelines and prompted me throughout the fight. Besides, my coach carefully studied the style of the Russian sambist in advance, watched all his fights, was able to identify his strong and weak points. 

The fight turned out to be pretty compelling, all in all, my challenger was really well prepared, waged a competent tactical fight, was “loading” my arm which caused certain inconvenience, but all this was done by the rules.

My goal was the gold at the World Youth Championships. Now I hope to participate in the adult World SAMBO Championships and, of course, to win there.

Somon SANGOV (Tajikistan), a silver medal winner in the up to 52 kg weight category among juniors (M):

- Defeat is the mother of success; any defeat builds character. It means, something is still lacking, some practice is still needed, hence, I should train even more. I was already a bronze and silver medalist of the Youth Championships, and now it's the silver again. Next time I will definitely win gold!

Aneta POKORNA (Czech Republic), a bronze medal winner in the up to 56 kg weight category among juniors (W):

- I wish to thank my coach, my family and all my friends for their support. Of course, I was dreaming of  the gold, but I'm glad that I've managed to win a medal, albeit of a different value. The bronze is a good achievement, too. I've been practicing SAMBO not for long, just for a year. But I've had a good experience in judo and jujitsu. To me, the principal difference between SAMBO and other types of martial arts is a large variety of submission holds and a lot of wrestling in par terre. I haven't as yet chosen my favorite sport, but I will definitely stay in SAMBO in the future.

Akmaral SERIK (Kazakhstan), a silver medal winner in the up to 60 kg weight category among juniors (W):

- There are no victories without defeats. I’m not upset, as today I've gained some invaluable experience. Despite the fact that I was diligently preparing for these competitions, practicing various techniques, something was found missing. Not a big deal, though - everything is still ahead.