IOC President Jacques Rogge Interested in Russian Sambo

President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) Mr. Jacques Rogge demonstrated interest in presentation of Russian national sport - Sambo, as told by FIAS President David Rudman in an exclusive interview to ITAR-TASS.

During his visit to the Russian capital, the head of IOC watched the presentation of Sambo in a new basketball palace "Dinamo" in Krylatskoe. "The whole presentation lasted about 10 minutes. 40 young students of Sambo school "Sambo-70" did fiery warm-up with acrobatics elements in it, after that they showed proper technique in standing and ground positions", told Rudman. During the presentation he managed to tell Rogge the history of Sambo, pointing out that many famous people were engaged in this sport, samboists are especially proud that Russian President Vladimir Putin is master sport of Sambo. As of today this sport is present on 5 continents in 65 countries.

In the middle of the presentation one of the most titled sportsman - graduate of "Sambo-70" school, head of Moscow Sambo school "Borec" Igor Kurennoy conducted a demonstrational fight, finishing it with a spectacular throw "melnitza". After that he presented Rogge with his disc on Sambo technique. Immediately after that women-samboists demonstrated their sport skills. In the final event 8 sportsmen performed a human pyramid.

Rudman presented the head of IOC with photo album about the last World Championship in Astana and his book "Selfdefence Without Weapons from Viktor Spiridonov to Vladimir Putin".

President of Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Leonid Tiagachev, Vice-President IOC Vitaliy Smirnov, First ROC Vice-President Victor Hotochkin, ROC Vice-President Gennadiy Aleshin, President of Moscomsport Michail Stepaniantz and President of Russian and European Sambo Federations Sergey Eliseev watched the presentation together with Rogge.

Pictures from the Presentation: