The European Sambo Championships will last for five days ©FIAS

The 2023 European Sambo Championships are set to start tomorrow in Haifa, with the men's and women's, as well as the junior, youth and cadet tournaments taking place.

Russian, Belarusian and French athletes will be competing as neutrals.

Russia and Belarus have not been cleared to be represented due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, while France will not be represented due to a governance dispute with the International Sambo Federation (FIAS).

In 2022, Russian athletes dominated the standings competing under the FIAS flag, finishing with 16 golds, two silvers and three bronzes.

They achieved gold in four out of seven women's weight classes, with wins for Sephora Corcher in the 50 kilograms, Elmira Kahramanova in the 54 kg, Valeria Anisimova in the 65 kg and Tamara Lishchenko in the 72 kg.

In the men's, they claimed six of seven golds, with victories for Vladimir Gladkikh in the 58 kg, Aleksandr Fedorov in the 64 kg, Ramed Gukev in the 71 kg, Denis Kalinin in the 79 kg, Sergei Kiriukhin in the 88 kg and Aleksei Merzlikin in the over 98 kg.

Athletes from 24 nations will be competing at the European Sambo Championships ©FIAS
Athletes from 24 nations will be competing at the European Sambo Championships ©FIAS

The men's team also won six of seven golds in combat sambo, with Valera Ergalov winning the 58 kg, Fedor Durymanov in the 64 kg, Zagid Gaidarov in the 79 kg, Said Saidov in the 88 kg, Anton Mamonov in the 98 kg and Soslan Dzhanaev in the over 98 kg.

Competing in this year's tournament will be Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia.

The tournament will serve as a qualifying route for the World Martial Arts Games, which will be taking place at the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

"We have decided to hold two major continental tournaments at the same time this year - the European Championship and the European Youth Championship," said FIAS President Vasily Shestakov.

Russian sambists won 16 gold medals at last year's competition in Novi Sad ©Getty Images
Russian sambists won 16 gold medals at last year's competition in Novi Sad ©Getty Images

"This practice proved its effectiveness last year, when continental competitions were held in the Serbian city of Novi Sad.

"Being in the same arena with more experienced sambists, young athletes will be able to quickly adapt to the future transition to senior teams."

The European Championships will also feature combat sambo for women in the 65 kg weight class for the first time.

The men's side will have eight traditional classes, while the women's will have seven.

The tournament is scheduled to conclude on April 23.