World Cup 2012 for Juniors and Youth: Preparations Have Begun!

This year the World Championship among Juniors and Youth will be held as usually in October. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, will welcome the future SAMBO stars. The tournament will be held in multi-purpose Arena Armeec Sports Hall in Sofia. It is one of the most advanced sports complexes in Europe which opened its doors for sports fans last year in June. It took 18 months to build it up. 8 sports can use it as a platform for competitions. SAMBO is one of them. The arena is equipped with modern security system with uninterrupted videotaping of guests. Thus, the audience will not have to make use of any self-defense techniques: the Bulgarian organizers guarantee public order. Some more figures: the hall was built to seat 12 000 guests who can all leave the arena within 3 minutes using the 75 exits of this modern Sports hall. The arena was named after its official sponsor: Armeec insurance company. On these April days, the arena will host the first Olympic qualification tournament in wrestling; after that volleyball teams will continue the elimination rounds for the most important tournament of the four years of their performance on Armeec's hardwood. Sambists will appear on this arena only in October. It is when the SAMBO mats will decorate Armeec for the first time. To make this decoration really beautiful, bright and spectacular, FIAS delegation made a working visit to Sofia. I believe many people would agree that the most important thing for preparation of a large tournament is neither the size of the hall nor the experience of the organizers not the sums invested. The most important thing for the success is a team - a like-minded team, a team of friends and colleagues. We had such team in Riga at the World Championship last year where the Latvia Association of SAMBO Clubs made an excellent sports festival for the sambists family. Now the International SAMBO Federation wants to achieve the same result in Sofia. According to a famous Russian actor, the most important and the most difficult thing about the film director's job is to create the atmosphere. These words initially said about the art of direction are equally applicable to sport. To organize a tournament, we also need atmosphere - the atmosphere of trust, inspiration and commitment. FIAS representatives found such atmosphere in Bulgaria in the very beginning of preparation for the World Championship. They just had to join it and enrich with their professional skills and motivation. The Organization Committee of the oncoming World Championship is headed by the most experienced people devoted to SAMBO - Rumen Stoilov, President of Bulgarian SAMBO federation, Georgy Veslov, General Secretary, and Vesela Vankova, executive Director of the Federation. When the Organization Committee is guided by such people who had successfully organized many European and World Championships, the FIAS Management can be calm about the event. Bulgarian SAMBO Federation and International SAMBO Federation promptly agreed on all the matters related to the organization of the Tournament: accommodation, catering, transportation, marketing and conditions for media. At the playfields to be used during the Championship, they also discussed many things, from the location of the mixed zone to the provision of microwave ovens for the athletes' rooms. Everybody was happy about the results; now just one small thing is lacking: bringing all this to life. Turning dreams to reality is easy if you share them with a lot of people who render their help and support; people who know SAMBO and are committed to this sport. In Bulgaria, SAMBO is popular; everybody knows the names of famous sambists: Vasil Sokolov, Ivan Netov, Georgy Georgiev and many others. This is why the preliminary negotiations with Mr. Krasimir Milnev, the Head of the Sports Department of Balkan News Corporation, were so easy and effective. Though he had to comment on the top semi-final UEFA Champions League match between Bavaria and Barcelona and was too preoccupied with thoughts of football, he treated SAMBO representatives with deep respect. Preliminary agreement has been achieved that this Company will be the host broadcaster of the World Championship. Thus, the young athletes can now dream not only about the medals of World Championship but also about being shown on TV. Mass media - the so-called fourth-estate - has treated SAMBO with respect in Bulgaria. As to the attitude of the second (executive) branch of power, BFS President Rumen Stoilov and FIAS Executive Director Sergei Tabakov learnt at the meeting with Deputy Minister for Physical Education and Sports Mr. Lazar Kamenov and Deputy Minister for Education, Youth and Science Mrs. Petya Evtimova. As it turned out, Bulgarian SAMBO executives go all out in support of this ambitious project and are ready to render assistance of any kind to the World Championships. The organization and holding of the Championship will surely be based on the experience and achievements of Bulgarian SAMBO Federation. However, the visit of FIAS representatives to Sofia helped them formulate more precisely their vision of the work to be done, and (which is the most important thing) make the atmosphere necessary for creative cooperation and success. We all still have a lot to do on the way to success. This work will finally make us wiser and stronger. Natalia Yukhareva press service of FIAS