Following the results of two days of the All-Russian Competition “Memory” held in Ekaterinburg, the Sverdlovsk Region, sportsmen won more than 30 awards in total

More than 30 medals of different merits were won by sambo wrestlers from the Sverdlovsk Region at the All-Russian Sambo Competition called "Memory" held on August 26-27, 2021 at Rodina Sports Club in Ekaterinburg. The tournament was organized by Rodina Sports Club and Sambo Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region.

During two days, 15 sets of medals were competed for: 8 among men and 7 among women.

The competition brought together the strongest sambo wrestlers from 17 regions of the country - over 150 people. Among them were Merited Masters of Sports, world and European champions, winners of World Cups, Russian champions and winners of European and world youth championships. A special notice deserve Andrey Kubarkov, Master of Sports from Vyksa (Nizhniy Novgorod Region), Aram Grigoryan, Master of Sports from Armavir (Krasnodar Krai), Diana Ryabova, Master of Sports from Moscow and many others.

In such a respectable company, the Sverdlovsk team looked more than confident and outclassed the competitors with a clear advantage. Indeed, our older generations would be proud of the young athletes.

After the first day of competitions, when women's tournament took place and men performed in heavyweight categories up to 98 kg and over 98 kg, our athletes had already won 18 medals. And today they added 15 more to their collection. All of them, including four gold ones, were won by representatives of the flagships of Ural Sambo – UMMC Sambo Club (Verkhnyaya Pyshma), Sambo and Judo Sports School of the Olympic Reserve and "Rodina" Sports Club from Ekaterinburg.

The Sverdlovsk Region citizens obviously dominated in the remaining weight categories and allowed the guests to get only two golds out of six. Moreover, in two categories the finals were held between representatives of Ekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma. In the weight of up to 64 kg, Stepan Fediv from Ekaterinburg was slightly more successful than Vyacheslav Matveyev from Verkhnyaya Pyshma. And in the weight of up to 79 kg even more skilled Denis Sukhanov from UMMC tactically outplayed young Ivan Lukanin from the Ural capital.

The real hero of the competition was young Danir Shamsutdinov from UMMC Sambo Club, he won the gold medal in the category of up to 53 kg. In the final, his rival was exactly Andrey Kubarkov, experienced double world champion from the Nizhniy Novgorod Region. Kubarkov seemed to be leading calmly in the middle of the match with a score of 3:0, but ambitious Shamsutdinov managed to reverse the course of the fight in his favor and won 5:4.

Finally, our leader Ali Kurzhev from UMMC Sambo Club put a bright point in the last final of the evening (up to 88 kg). A lightning-fast painful knee lock brought him a victory over Aram Grigoryan, world champion from the Krasnodar Krai, two and a half minutes before the end of the match.

As a reminder, this is the second time Memory Tournament was held. The first one had taken place in 2019. The idea of holding it belongs to Nikolay Zuyev, a famous sambo wrestler from the Urals, winner of the Sambo World Cup, prize-winner and winner of the RSFSR and USSR championships, long-time member of the USSR sambo team.

The goal of the competition is not only to determine the strongest athletes, but also to pay tribute to outstanding sambo wrestlers and coaches from the Sverdlovsk Region who made invaluable contribution to the development of Russian and world sambo. Next year, the organizers are planning to increase the number of participants and change the dates of competitions to create conditions that are even more comfortable for everyone.