President Aliyev awarded with championship sambo belt
By Nigar Orujova
President Ilham Aliyev has been awarded with an honorary sambo championship belt.
The Head of the International Sambo Federation, Vasiliy Shestakov, presented the championship belt to the Azerbaijani president in Baku on June 22 upon the decision of the executive committee of the International Sambo Federation.
Shestakov thanked the Head of State for holding the inaugural European Games in Baku.
He said Baku is almost unrecognizable since his last visit to the city in 1974. “Baku is magnificent city, everything is very beautiful,” he added.
The president of the ISF expressed gratitude for the support of the President, allowing sambo to be included in such a great sporting event.
“By the decision of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Sambo, we hand you the championship belt for the great contribution to the development of sambo in Azerbaijan and in the world. This is the second belt, the first was awarded to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the honorary president,” Shestakov said.
President Aliyev thanked Shestakov. “I am very grateful for this assessment of my work. As you noted, sambo was included in the program of the first European Games. It was a joint initiative of President Putin and mine. We discussed it with him last year in the spring. We appealed to the European Olympic Committee to ensure that sambo was included in the program.”
The president expressed his gratefulness to the European Olympic Committee which satisfied the request.
Shestakov stressed that he follows Azerbaijan’s strong school of sambo with interest.
“I think this is the way for sambo in the future program of the Olympic Games,” President Aliyev said. “This sport is very popular here. After the competitions in this sport, I think the inflow to sambo will increase even more. We all know that, since judo is an Olympic sport, it attracts more and more young people and children, because everyone wants to be Olympic champion. We also support sambo in such a way and will support it in the future.”
Shestakov expressed hope that with the support of the Azerbaijani president, sambo will have a good chance to make it into the Olympic program.
He also praised Azerbaijani wrestler, world champion Jeyhun Mammadov, as a legend in sambo, which is why he was awarded with the highest award by the International Sambo Federation, the gold sign. Only ten athletes in the history of the sport have been awarded this sign.
The Baku 2015 European Games is an innovative competition that has gathered over 6,000 athletes from 50 countries to compete in 20 sports. Twelve of these events are officially recognized as qualifiers for 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The competitions in sambo have come to an end in Baku 2015 with Azerbaijani wrestlers achieving four silver medals.
On June 22, Azerbaijan’s female wrestler Nazakat Khalilova claimed the silver medal in the women’s 52 kg sambo event. Islam Gasimov won the silver medal in the men's 57kg, Amil Gasimov became second in the men's 74kg, and Vasif Safarbayov won silver in the men's +100kg.
Sambo schools are successfully operating in major cities throughout the country, such as Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, etc. Azerbaijani sambo athletes have won world cups, the World and European championships, as well as championships in the USSR.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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