World Sombo Championships November 2007
Prague Czech Republic
Report by Martin Clarke Sombo Grandmaster
Men's Team
This years World was the best ever, it was the best attended, I counted 43 countries with actual competitors and that was without delegates who didn’t have competitors, as someone who has attended 18 World Competitions I should know . It was most certainly he highest standard I have ever seen and the two days were joy to watch for anyone interested in grappling especially Jacket Wresting.
My main interest was the British Team who I have been coaching for the last 12 months not just in technique but also in weigh training and fitness, the team was John Clarke (Captain) u90k, Danny Carrott u82k, Ashley Costa u68k, Wesley Cousins u74k. The first three were from my own club the “Warriors Grappling Academy” based in Sittingbourne and Wesley hails from Thanet new rules restricted our entry. In previous years we have taken anyone placed in the top three in the British who could afford to go irrelevant of standard but last year the FIAS Council passed new article in the Statutes, which read as follows “ Only high level athlete, recommended by National or Continental federations are permitted to participate in competitions organised by FIAS” . The four selected were all seasoned Jacket wrestler winning national and international tournaments in Sombo, Kurash and Judo.
The team had trained extremely hard and were the fittest, strongest team the BSF has ever taken to a World event, our aim was to win fights (as it has been many years since a British player has won a match in the World Championships) and with a bit of luck medals. In previous years each weight always had an easy side to the draw and my hope we would strike lucky and get in the easy side but this was not to be as there was no such thing as an easy match. All the countries competing had took note of the new statute so every fight was to be a hard one>
The first day of the competition saw John Clarke and Wesley Cousins fighting with John being first on. John at 34 years of age is coming to the end of his senior career, at 35 he will qualify for Masters Events, so this was the event he wanted to do well in. John has been competing in Judo, Freestyle Wrestling, Sombo, Kurash and Belt Wrestling since he was 5 years old so he had bags of experience. Not only am I John’s Coach but I am also his Father so I new all about him. His first fight was against the Russian Alsim Chernoskulov, we new this was to be a hard fight as the Russian was the favourite for Gold. Our strategy was not to match him strength for strength but take him out with speed and technique, this was to be a mistake John attacked fast and low with a double leg pick up a technique he had perfected over years only to be countered with a hip throw. This put him 4 pts behind for the next 2 minutes John locked in and a couple of times I thought he should have scored with a couple of knockdowns he got on the Russian but to no avail. With only two minutes to go it was obvious john had to do something dramatic to get the lead his only answer was to try a full blown hip throw. The problem with this techniques you are either successful or you get countered and on this occasion John was countered and John lost 12 pts to Nil.
John’s next match was against Edil Usenov Kazakhstan, as John’s Coach I tried to convince him that he could still win but inwardly I had my doubts as the Usenov had only conceded 3 pts to the Russian. How wrong I was in just under a minute scored with a Suplex to score 4pts, he then countered his opponents strong inner thigh throw for another 4pts. Usenov came back at 3 minutes the score was 8pts to 8pts and the John seemed to get his second wind coming back with countless attacks to win 18pt to 8pts. The audience gave raptures applause, some in amazement that an Englishman had beaten top Eastern Block fighter.
So onwards to get a Bronze next up was Akobir Kurbonov Uzbekistan, John was full of confidence and both of us were convinced a Bronze was possible. Against the Russian the Uzbek looked slow, just right for John but John was to be caught for a sucker throw, a techniques which is his own favourite a cross grip single leg take, which caught him for a Total Victory. His world bid was over but he could hold his head high he had won a fight and he was beaten but not outclassed this experience will do him well when he enters next years Europeans in the Ukraine where he will be a medal prospect.
John Clarke about to score a 4
Wayne Cousins a very experienced Judo player has recently performed well in some Home Sombo competitions, although his first time at the World Sombo Championships, he was used to winning having recently won the British Masters Judo Championships. His inauguration 74k World championship fight was against Maksat Mazibaev Kazakhstan, it was not to be Wesley day as half way through the match he was caught with an inner thigh throw for a Total Victory. Sadly Mazibaev was eliminated in the next round and only those fighters who lost to the finalist could go on to fight for bronze, a long way to go for one fight but Wesley was not deterred commenting that he had seen some terrific fights and learnt a lot.
The Second day saw 21 year old Danny Carrott competing in the u82k class, Danny who is son of World Master’s Bronze Medallist Colin Carrott, is very much a future prospect and entering these major tournaments over the next few years is very much a learning curve, I expect him to reach his peak in about 5 years time. Becoming a World Class Player is not an overnight fix and one must remember this when starting on the journey. Danny’s one and only fight was against the Moldavian Evgheni Rusu. As per usual Danny put up an excellent fight but could not match his opponent’s strength and lost 12pts to nil. Danny laughed of the match saying wait till next time; Danny Carrott will be a leading World Class Sombo Wrestler.
Our last hope came in the form of 68 kilo player Ashley Costa, 28 year old Ashley is son of Judo/Sombo Coach Keith Costa and has been with club since he was 5, from the age of 8 I (Martin Clarke) have trained him. Ashley is one the best all round technical Players I have ever trained, excellent thrower yet also good on the ground especially with arm locks. His one problem can be his erratic performance when he doesn’t train his standard drops but for the Worlds this was not going to happen as he has trained very hard for 12 months and he was looking good. His first fight was against Antoine Jaillet France, who had just beaten the Iranian (a country known for supply good wrestlers) Jamshid Kheiri. Ashley started the match cautiously upping the pace as the time went on with only 5 seconds to go Ashley was ahead by 1pt, most fighters would have been content with this, not Ashley he picked his opponent up above his shoulders and seemed to freeze. The British contingent shouted in unison “Dump HIM” and he did gaining another 4pts with 1 second to go. The whole audience gave him a standing ovation. His next match was against Stefan Shopov and the word fro the Bulgarian camp was they expected a quick win against the Englishman. They were in for a shock as Ashley was not daunted by the opposition and the match went the full distance with Ashley losing 6pts to 0pts a good result against a tough opponent, sadly the Bulgarian went out on the next fight so Ashley was out of the comp.
For the first time in many years we have taken a fit competent team, a team that was complimented by both the Russian and Georgian Coach, who gave a performance GB could be proud of but most importantly John and Ashley proved we can win World Class bouts and next year GB will win a World Medal.
Start of Ashley's Pick Up
There is much more I can say about the tournament, the actual organising of the World Championships was brilliant, the accommodation and booking in left a lot to be desired but FIAS has promised to look into this. Hopefully they will bring out a DVD of the finals as they were the most exciting I have ever seen in any grappling sports and I include Judo. It is a shame we can not get a lot of these players to England even though we run a British Open our New Labour Government refuse to give visa’s to genuine Sportsman but every year we illegal immigrants entering?
When I first started Sombo in 1975 a good friend of mine (Mile Illott deceased) called Sombo Judo with handles, this was a reference to the amplest in a Kurtka, at that time he was most probably right. Today there is a great deal of difference between the 2 grappling sports, Sombo is much more a grappling art. Although I love the tradition and Philosophy of Judo, as I get older I appreciate Kata a lot more, I much prefer the excitement and the variation of technique in a Sombo competition. Judo can learn a lot form Sombo with its Red and Blue Kurtka, Sombo shoes, easy to understand scoring, easy to understand hand signals with no foreign language, referees less pompous and stop and start on a whistle.
On the Saturday was the Sambo Combat Championships this was not that well supported and the preliminary rounds were finish by 2pm. This type of Sambo your wear a Kurtka, Head guard, shin and instep pads and padded mitts, you compete on a Sombo Mat with punching and kicking allowed,the scoring is the same as Sambo Sport with the exception you score 3 pts for a standing count of 8 and a total victory with a knockout.
This is the second year I have watched this event and this year seemed like a blood bath, with cuts, broken hands and limbs. Exciting if you are in to Ultimate Fighting styles but still pretty gruesome and something that needs a lot more control. As legal owner of CombatSombo in GB I tired to get insurance cover on a water downed version but could not get any insurance cover, if anyone can get me cover please let me Know.
As I said in the beginning there were over 43 participating countries this can be checked by going to the FIAS Results page at http://www.sambo.com/results.html