Just as they did at the first-ever sambo President’s Cup, held last year in Kent, Russia quite simply blew the opposition away here to retain their title.

Their walk to the top of the podium signalled the end of what’s been another productive couple of days for sambo as it continues its push to gain recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is currently presiding over the sport’s official application.

At a pre-event press conference yesterday, International Sambo Federation (FIAS) President Vasily Shestakov insisted there are no longer “any kind of barriers” to stop the sport he heads from achieving its goal.

The Russian said the IOC believes sambo is “very interesting and very exciting”, and given the type of event seen today, it certainly seems as though it is getting more and more in touch with the 21st century.

With high profile DJ Liv Knight providing music in between fights and strobe lighting effects galore, it’s a far cry from my previous encounter with the sport at the European Sambo Championship in Zagreb just a few months earlier which, with all due respect, was held at a venue which resembled an old school sports hall.

"Our concept behind the President’s Cup is that it allows us to do something a little bit different with sambo," said Leo Malim, a member of the Commonwealth Sambo Association's (CSA) Executive Board who played a key role in the organisation of the President's Cup.

"Rather than having a purely sporting tournament, we can create more of an entertainment spectacle around the sport.

"Something to involve and pull in the spectators, to be more sponsor friendly, to be more media friendly, and that’s the theme that we continued with this year."

He added: “We managed to retain our sponsors from last year.

"We’ve also added a number of media sponsors, both here and abroad.

"We can televise this year across 33 nations and it’s just given us a huge boost, not only to the sport in this country, but also to everyone involved in the Commonwealth Sambo Association to know that the message is getting through that sambo is growing."

Nevertheless, Shestakov’s claims that all the problems and issues the sport had are “now solved”, while perhaps exaggerated in its translation to English, do seem a bit premature.

One significant issue that shrouds the sport, raised by British Sambo Federation (BSF) President Martin Clarke, is that of funding.

Citing the problems that the BSF faces on this front, Clarke was particularly critical of the powers that be here in Britain.

"The problem with funding in Great Britain is our Government, through UK Sport, will only support Olympic sports and they tend to be now only supporting those Olympic sports that will win medals," he said.

"Now to me, I think that’s totally wrong.

"They should be spreading money across all sports because sport is more than just winning medals.

"The problem with the sporting world today, is that it’s become very political.

"It’s about 'my country has won more Olympic medals than your country', so therefore because England [Great Britain] got third place in the [London 2012] Olympic Games in terms of medals, we must be a great country – it’s rubbish.

"We should be trying to make the base of the triangle as wide as possible because eventually when it comes to the top you will produce better people.

"And the only way you can do that is to encourage people to do many, many sports.

"The shortsightedness of the Government and UK Sport means they don’t recognise some of the more newer sports, like sambo."

In order to continue to develop, sambo needs to stand itself out from the crowd, and as Shestakov has pointed out, it is exploring a number of ways in which to do so.

The President’s Cup in itself, with a mixed-gender format of five men and two women in one team, is adding a new dimension, while it’s also worth noting that sambo featured on the sports programme of last year’s Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand.

Another format currently being considered is that of “demo sambo”, in which participants show off their skills and are judged on their best throws.

This comes in the wake of sambo’s well-received appearance at the Baku 2015 European Games where, true to form, Russia dominated the competition by winning five of the eight gold medals on offer.

Moving outside the sport itself, Shestakov said FIAS had received a letter of thanks from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which hailed sambo as one of the leading sports federations in terms of its work in that area.

FIAS is also paying a lot of attention to social programmes, an example of which can be seen in its cooperation agreement with the "Centre for the Study and Conservation of the Amur Tiger".

Signed in May of this year, the agreement sees the two parties jointly organise and run a variety of events directed at the development and popularisation of sambo, and attracting public attention to the problem of preserving and increasing the Amur tiger population.

Further attention was brought to the sport recently when a number of people associated with sambo, including Malim, climbed Russia’s 5,642 metre Mount Elbrus, pitching a sambo flag at the summit in a symbolic moment for the sport.

The climb was all about putting sambo on the map, and having done so in a symbolic sense, it may not be long before the sport really makes its mark in a literal sense.

In February, IOC President Thomas Bach visited the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism in Moscow, where he had what Shestakov described as an "informal conversation" with two-time world sambo champion Yana Kostenko.

Asked by Russia's Kostenko about the possibility of granting IOC recognition to sambo, Bach simply answered "maybe, maybe".

The answer “yes” appears to be edging closer.