The World Sambo Championship ended in Kyrgyzstan, following which the Russians collected a rich medal harvest: 21 gold, two silver and five bronze medals in three days. The leadership of our athletes was predictable, but such unconditional dominance to some extent came as a surprise to the fans.

Our athletes simply did not notice their opponents.

Leadership from day one

On Sunday, November 9, the 50th World Sambo Championship ended in Kyrgyzstan. Almost immediately it became clear that Russian athletes would not lose their lead in the team competition – on the first day alone, our athletes won 10 awards, nine of which were gold. And the sambists from Russia did not stop there, continuing to reap the medal harvest in the following days.

On the second day, the Russians performed a little more modestly, judging by the number of gold medals: in some categories they were left without medals at all. But four first places and one third – representatives of other countries could only dream of such a result.

In the men’s sports sambo category up to 88 kg, the most experienced Sergei Kiryukhin won – for the 38-year-old athlete this is already the third victory at the world championships. For women, the best were Anastasia Lukanina (54 kg) and Taisiya Kireeva (72 kg). Artem Tadin, who competed in combat sambo in the up to 98 kg category, took another gold on Saturday. And Yana Kozyreva (80 kg) finished the tournament with bronze in women’s combat sambo.

Sergey Kiryukhin / Photo: © All-Russian Sambo Federation

Historical achievement

On Sunday, the Russian team’s treasury was replenished with another eight gold and two bronze medals. In men’s sports sambo, Ramed Gukev (79 kg) and Sergey Kuznetsov (98 kg) became champions. For women, Tatyana Shuyanova (59 kg) and Anastasia Khomyachkova (80 kg) won on the final competition day. As a result, the Russians won in sports sambo in all eight weight categories, which became a historical achievement.

Russian women took three more gold medals in combat sambo. Valeria Tepysheva (50 kg), Sofia Istomina (65 kg) and Angela Gasparyan (over 80 kg) finished the tournament in Kyrgyzstan with victory. For men, Mikhail Kashurnikov (over 98 kg) became the champion in this discipline for the third year in a row, and Mukhtar Gamzaev (58 kg) and Zagid Gaidarov (79 kg) took bronze.

Tatyana Shuyanova or Anastasia Khomyachkova / Photo: © All-Russian Sambo Federation

Following the results of the World Championship, the team of Russian athletes confidently won the medal standings, taking 21 gold, two silver and five bronze medals. The Kazakhstan team, which took second place, had two gold, two silver and eight bronze medals. And here it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Russians did not really notice their opponents at the tournament in Kyrgyzstan.

Watch live broadcasts of sambo tournaments on the TV channels of the Match family, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.