The first edition of the International SAMBO Tournament “Città di Cinisello Balsamo”, a prosperous town in the province of Milan, ended on Sunday 28 May, with the participation of male and female athletes from 17 sports clubs, some of which came from France, Bulgaria and Germany.
An interesting aspect is that this was the first international tournament in Italy, since the Italian federation “FEDERKOMBAT” obtained the status of National Sports Federation, for the Olympic sports Kickboxing, Muay Thai and SAMBO, in fact on May 23, 2023 the General Assembly of the National Olympic Committee unanimously voted this decision.The following local authorities were present at the tournament: the mayor Giacomo Ghilardi, the councilors Riccardo Malavolta and Daniela Maggi, as well as the federal authorities represented by the national vice president of Federkombat Marco Bertoletti, the national manager of the Muay Thai sector Davide Carlot, the president of the regional committee Federkombat Giuseppe Del Gaudio and the FIAS and ESF segretary general Roberto Ferraris.
During the opening ceremony, a commemorative plaque of the event was given to Mayor Giacomo Ghilardi, to Ivan Netov, president of the referee commission of the European Sambo Federation, and to the president of the club organizing the event, Diego Brambilla, for his precious support to the development of SAMBO. in Italy and abroad.The competition was held with the formula of the single round for the weight categories with 5 or less athletes, while for those with 6 or more athletes the Olympic formula of direct elimination was applied, with simple recovery from the finalists, with two thirds places.Among the various Italian athletes in the competition, the performance of the Genoese SAMMICELI Salvatore emerged in the Sambo Combat, who won the gold medal against the two French opponents in the category up to 64 kg before the 5-minute limit.
For sport SAMBO, the Italian athletes who won gold were: the Alessandrian RASTELLAQA Alaa in the 71 kg, the Lombard POTENZA Vincenzo in the 88 kg and the Genoese CAVANNA Federico in the kg.+ 98.In the women’s field, Kateryna Moskalova, Romanian national athlete with multiple world medals, who lives in Milan and trains regularly at her home club Isao Okano Club 97, won first place in the kg.72 category.Among the other noteworthy athletes, the Bulgarian HARKOV Ivan Krasten, reigning European vice-champion, must certainly be mentioned, who dominated the category up to 79 kg proving to have been the best in the competition.
While among the Italians the reigning Italian champion Stefano Dattilo in the kg.88 of Rome and the junior athlete of the house, Mattia Canevaro who gave up the final for the gold in the kg, reached the podium with the silver medal .64. On the podium with bronze also: Avella Stefano kg.58 already bronze medal at the European junior championships 2022, Luca Baccino kg.64, Giulio Roggero kg.79 and Doda Marco kg.88.The team classification was won by the French club “Sambo Jonage”, followed in second place by the compatriots of the French Federation of Wrestling and Associated Disciplines, then the home club “Isao Okano Club 97” and the French club of the " Team Sambo Fighter".