MINSK, 21 February (BelTA) – A new system designed to record sport results during the 2nd European Games Minsk 2019 will be first tested at an international tournament – an open sambo championship for prizes of the Belarus president, BelTA learned from Deputy CEO of the Minsk European Games Organizing Committee (MEGOC) Anatol Kotau on 21 February.
The upcoming championship will be as close as possible to the standards the 2nd European Games Minsk 2019 will follow in June. The championship in the Sports Palace is being prepared together with the international and national federations and the Minsk European Games Organizing Committee. A number of new systems will be tested during the sambo championship: an accreditation system, the format for shooting the competitions, a system for recording sport results, an internal telephony and radio communication systems. “We are also going to check the work of the award teams, who will be used during the 2nd European Games Minsk 2019,” the official said.
The chief coach of the Belarusian national team Vyacheslav Kot noted that a number of top athletes will skip the forthcoming championship, including Sviatlana Tsimashenka and Aliaksei Stsepankou, who are recovering after traumas. “It is the first major competition in an important season, during which it is necessary to check the technical and physical readiness of top sambo wrestlers, to finish selection for the national team for 2019,” the coach said.
The Presidential Sport Club is a traditional partner of the upcoming sambo championship. The sport club has introduced special prizes for the will to win and for the best technique.
“The Presidential Sport Club vigorously supports Belarusian sambo wrestlers, many of whom are our scholarship holders. The forthcoming championship will give us names of new champions,” said Kseniya Valakhovich, Aide to the Chairman of the Presidential Sport Club.
The international sambo championship will gather about 300 athletes in Minsk on 22-23 February. Belarus will be represented by 25 athletes in nine weight categories among men and seven for women. The athletes will include Stsiapan Papou, Andrei Kazusionak, and Yury Rybak. The first fights will begin at 10:00 on 22 February.
The championship is organized by the International SAMBO Federation (FIAS), the Belarusian Sports and Tourism Ministry, the Presidential Sport Club, the Minsk City Executive Committee, the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, and the Belarusian Sambo Federation.
As many as 144 athletes will compete for 18 sets of medals during the sambo competitions as part of the 2nd European Games in Minsk on 22-23 June.
