SPORTSMEN FROM 17 COUNTRIES WILL TAKE PART IN CATEGORY A TOURNAMENT IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - Representatives of 17 countries will take part in the international category A sambo tournament for the prizes of General Aslambek Aslakhanov, adviser to the Russian president. Sambo (self-defense without weapons) is a kind of wrestling that appeared in the USSR in 1930s. The most efficient techniques of different national kinds of wrestling underlie sambo.

"I was a professional sportsman, always loved wrestling. But there is no other applied sport so beautiful as sambo. Most winners of mixed fights so popular now come from sambo," Aslakhanov said at a press conference devoted to the coming tournament.

He also expressed the hope that in 2012 Moscow will receive the right to host Summer Olympic Games, and by that time sambo will become an Olympic sport.

According to Sergei Yeliseyev, the president of the all-Russian sambo federation, some 140 sportsmen of nine weight categories will take part in the competitions. Among them are Murat Husanov, the only eight times world champion, two times world champions Skhatby Alkhaov and Suren Balachinsky.

The tournament will be held April 17-18 in the Ivan Yarygin Wrestling Palace.

The FIAS, international federation of amateur sambo, was founded in 1985. European sambo championships have been held from 1972, world championships, since 1973.