Odessa Oblast has staged the inaugural Ukrainian National Beach Sambo Championships ©FIAS

Odessa Oblast has staged the inaugural Ukrainian National Beach Sambo Championships, which attracted 107 participants from 10 regions across the country.

Competitions were held in two age categories - under-16 and over-16 - as sambists battled it out for the right to be crowned national champion.

Organisers praised the quality of bouts staged at the Championships on the Black Sea Coast, the majority of which were finished well within the three-minute time limit.

Alexei Goncharuk, the head of the Beach Sambo Committee at the Ukrainian National Federation (NFSU), claimed the event would help grow the discipline in Ukraine.

The event was the first National Beach Sambo Championships in Ukraine ©FIAS
The event was the first National Beach Sambo Championships in Ukraine ©FIAS

"The most important thing is that the participants have grown fond of beach sambo," he said.

"Representatives of the regions are willing to organise the local competitions, which, of course, will facilitate the promotion of sambo, and will attract more children to our martial art."

Goncharuk added that the NFSU were now planning a trip to Cyprus to compete at the Open Beach Sambo Championship in Larnaka, one of the most established events in the sport.

"Now, we will definitely start negotiating this issue with our partners, for we are going to enter the international arena," added Goncharuk.