Frederik-Jan Ningbers, Secretary General of the Netherlands Sambo Federation, in a special interview for eurosambo.com told about how athletes trained in COVID-19 conditions:
— How’s quarantine going in your country?
— At that moment we were allowed to train outside with social distancing in mind. Athletes under 18 were allowed to have contact, but only outside.
— How do athletes train under the circumstances connected with quarantine?
— In the Netherlands Sambo is not a part of the selected top sports (Olympic sports), so sambo athletes were following the same rules as amateur athletes, which means social distancing and only outside trainings.
— What is federation doing during the quarantine?
— Our federation is small, so we cannot do a lot. We were reorganizing our board and were talking with other martial arts federations to start up a Combat Centre in Rotterdam.
— What plans do athletes and federation have after quarantine will be over?
— After quarantine we will try to develop the federation further. We think this year there will be no competitions or tournaments anymore. Hopefully next year when Covid-19 is gone there will be a permission from the governments to hold the tournaments again.