Sunday, May 17, 2015
European Sambo Championships Report from Russell Dodds
European Sambo Championships
General Report
Croatia, 2015
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| British Team |
The British Sambo Team had been training hard for several months towards the trip to European Sambo Championships in Croatia and felt ready for the challenge and eager to get started. The team who flew out on the 14th of May consisted of Deborah Jackson, Kerrie Penfold, Emma Herd, Ryan Sylvester and Daniel Carrott competing in the Sport Sambo and Matthew Pickering in the Combat Sambo. Russell Dodds, English Sambo President also attended as coach and British representative at the congress.
The journey to Croatia went very smoothly, the flights and transfers were all quick, easy and well organised, with a sambo representative waiting to meet the team at the airport. On arrival at the Hotel Panorama all of the team were pleased to see that the hotel was clean and fresh with welcoming and organised staff who spoke excellent English. The accreditation procedure and issuing of Fias Sambo licenses was the best and most efficient the British Team have experienced and after a short wait they were given the keys to their hotel rooms, which they found to be spacious and well presented. The team were then further pleased by a filling and nutritious meal. The hotel continued to maintain this standard throughout the stay which the team were very impressed by.
The level of fighting at the competition was extremely high with attendance from 28 countries including Russia, Georgia, Belarus and many other countries with very strong sambo teams. It was observed that a higher percentage of fights appeared be won by leg locks and armlocks; it was thought that this may have been due to fighters being so evenly matched that bigger throws we have been seen in the past were not necessarily achievable. The new rules regarding a win being secured with 8 clear points rather than 12, meant that some of the fights were over more quickly; this proved a disadvantage to some of the team GB members. Although the entire GB team were well prepared and put their all into each fight the opposition proved too great and the team were unable to achieve any medal placings. However, these experiences at the European Championships should be used to our advantage to prepare even more effectively for upcoming championships in the future. The squad intends to pull together more as a team and use any disappointing outcomes as training points. They have collected a wealth of data and knowledge from this tournament which will be used as a valuable training tools.
Russell Dodds attended the ESF congress and reported the following points:
There will be a coaching database introduced
Later this year jacket ‘back badges’ will be compulsory, displaying the competitors name, country and the competition’s sponsor- these will be available from July 20th (details via Russell Dodds)
Russell Dodds also attended and completed the anti-doping workshop, certification to be completed at the World Championships in Casa Blanca.
On the final night in Croatia the team enjoyed a relaxing night out together before returning home on 18th May. Although they will be returning empty handed this time they have learnt a lot which will help them to achieve their goals in the future.
# posted by IBFBCSA @ 12:15 PM 
