World SAMBO Championships in Vilnius: Day 2

The Russians, who won five gold medals on Saturday, hold the first place in the teams' classification after the first two days of the competition. The most memorable final was the one in 74kg sports sambo featuring Uali Kurzhev. By a painful hold, which sambo wrestlers call by catchy and expressive name "jadwiga", he defeated his long-term rival Belarus' Stepan Popov. Lightning fast move was a highlight of the competition day and got a great response from the audience: such bright victories, especially in the finals, never fail to impress the spectators and are respected by specialists. In women 80kg weight category Natalia Kazantseva also achieved an early victory. Technical actions on the ground, a hold-down and proficient transition to a painful hold and Natalia became the World Champion. The other three medals for Russia that day were won by Susanna Mirzoyan (52kg), Artem Osipenko (100kg) and Ivan Davidenko (62kg, combat sambo). The second place in teams' ranking after two competition days belongs to team Belarus. On Saturday another gold medal for the team was won in 64kg weight category by Angela Paim-Kraskovskaya, who defeated the three-time World Champion Russia's Olga Usoltseva on warnings. Bulgaria rounds up the list of the top three teams. The highlight of the competition day for all spectators of the "Siemens Arena" was a triumph by Bulgarian combat sambo wrestlers. At first Rosen Dimitrov (82kg) achieved an early victory over Niazhmengliev from Turkmenistan. A series of chest throws, inside grapple and Dimitrov raises his hands in triumph, celebrating his Championship title. At the end of the competition day - a true treasure of the tournament - the final bout in heavyweight category between Bulgaria's Martin Marinkov and Russia's Kirill Sidelnikov. Great technical execution of a two-feet pickup gave Martin advantage in points; Kirill responded by blows and counterattacked by a throw undercut with legs grapple. In the end of this intense bout, in which advantage moved from one athlete to another, Marinkov executed a hold-down and achieved a convincing victory. The spectators welcomed the triumph of Bulgarian SAMBO by a standing ovation. After the second competition day the top eight of the Championships also includes sambo wrestlers from Ukraine (1 - 2 - 6), Georgia (1 - 2 - 1), Kazakhstan (1 - 1 - 3), Turkmenistan (0 - 3 - 2) and Uzbekistan (0 - 1 - 3). Tomorrow is the final day of the Championships, which will reveal the names of the champions in the remaining weight categories and will determine the outcome of the intense team rivalry.