Roberto Ferraris, the secretary general of FIAS, officially declared the 2016 World Sambo Championships open ahead of the tournament's start tomorrow at the Arena Armeec.

As well as the four nations that were handed full recognition, both Costa Rica and Macao were awarded provisional membership.

During the proceedings Sochi, the venue for the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, was also chosen as the host city of next year's World Sambo Championships. 

A date has not been finalised but the tournament is expected to take place once again in November. 

A host of statutory changes were also revealed by Suresh Gopi, the director of the Asian Sambo Union and chairman of the governing body's Legal Commission.

These have been made to bring some of the sport's laws in-line with those of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a bid to further boost sambo's chances of gaining recognition.

One of the changes to be revealed was to encourage the women's side of sambo sport, while the second surrounded the promotion of the sport's ethical and moral standing.

"We have clearly stated that our objective is to promote integrity and fair play in our sport," said Gopi.

"We must prevent things such as corruption, doping and match manipulation and anything else that will jeopardise the integrity of our sport.

"FIAS is also committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and will strive to promote these."

The FIAS Executive Committee must also now have at least a 25 per cent women's representation to conform to IOC standards.

The President can no longer serve more than three consecutive terms of four-years in office.

Federations currently applying for IOC membership are due to be told if their applications have been successful next month.

The FIAS had been hopeful of being put forward for full recognition at the IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro in August, only to be overlooked along with several other Federations.

"Together with our common efforts, we can establish our place in the Olympic Games in the very near future," said FIAS President Vasiliy Shestakov.

The opening day of action at the World Sambo Championships is scheduled to begin at 10am local time, with preliminary rounds in nine weight categories before the day's finals start at 6pm tomorrow evening.

Athletes will be competing for 27 gold medals during three days of action at the Arena Armeec.

Competitions in both women's and men's sport sambo as well as men's combat sambo all feature on the programme.