Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Presidents Cup Press Release
The President`s Cup
2014
International Sambo
Martial Arts Tournament
The inaugural President's Cup International Sambo Martial Arts
Tournament is to be staged in London on Saturday September 27th
2014. The tournament will be held at the Bluewater shopping mall, the largest mall
in Europe with up to 100,000 visitors per day.
Sambo is the global phenomenon that has been dominating the martial arts
world. It combines the most effective elements of judo and wrestling to produce
a system of “defence without weapons,” which is the literal translation of
Sambo. Champions of the sport, such as Fedor Emelianenko and Oleg Taktarov,
have gone on to dominate the world of cage fighting and MMA bringing the sport
to international attention.
The tournament is being organised by the Commonwealth Sambo Association,
headed by Lord Simon Reading, and the British Sambo Federation headed by Martin
Clarke, with close support from the International Federation of Sambo (FIAS)
and their President Vasily Shestakov. Lord Reading, who was keen to promote the
successes of the Commonwealth nations in the sport, initiated idea for a
British tournament and was delighted to find close support from the major
sponsor, “Jewellers of Northern Capital” and their CEO Timur Kabukaev.
The event is a knockout style tournament for the top 8
Sambo nations, with the world’s leading teams competing in one group to qualify for the
final: the national teams of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia. The
second group is formed of Sambo teams representing the British Commonwealth.
The teams are divided on a continental basis and include athletes from
countries such as South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, Botswana, Canada, Australia,
Sri Lanka, India, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The first round for all teams commences at midday,
followed by a semi final and then a final that finishes at 6pm. Individual
results from the 9 fighters per team go towards a grand total ensuring that the
top teams will advance through each round. Teams will comprise both male and
female fighters throughout multiple weight divisions with each fighter scoring
points towards national glory and the stunning President’s Cup which consists
of gold, silver, jade, jasper, turquoise and a host of other exotic stones.
There have been rumours of a President's Cup coming to
Britain for a few years, and now it seems that the tournament is arriving in
force. An internationally famous venue, 16 World Champions on the roster, MMA
celebrity support and top class production values will launch the British
President’s Cup as one of the top global martial arts events. It sets the scene
for the first European Olympic Games next summer where Sambo makes its debut on
the Olympic stage. It has also been announced that the London Scottish Regiment
Pipes and Drums will be appearing (by kind permission of Colonel Rankin-Hunt, CVO, MBE, TD, Regimental Colonel) to ensure that the event has a particular British
feel.