Tajikistan's Sambo Wrestling Federation says that after weeks of uncertainty, South Korea has issued entry visas to its athletes in order to compete in the world championships later this month, according to Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service.
Nosir Bozorov, the head coach of the Tajik national team, told RFE/RL on October 31 that the Tajik Foreign Ministry and the State Committee for Youth, Sports, and Tourism were involved in resolving the issue.
Meanwhile, a source close to the Tajik Government told RFE/RL that South Korea agreed to issue visas to nine Tajik sambo wrestlers and their coach after senior officials in Tajikistan guaranteed all the athletes and the coach would return home after the world championship ends.
Recall, Tajikistan's Sambo Wrestling Federation said on October 16 South Korea had refused to issue visas to the athletes because several Tajik wrestlers who took part in a 2016 tournament hosted by South Korea never returned to Tajikistan and stayed in South Korea illegally.
national team head coach Nosir Bozorov told RFE/RL on October 15 that at the heart of the issue are four Tajik wrestlers who participated in an international competition in South Korea and subsequently failed to return home.
The World Sambo Championships are the main championships in Sambo and Combat Sambo. Organized by the Fédération Internationale de Sambo (FIAS), this year’s World Sambo Championships will take place in Republic of Korea Cheongju South Korea from November 8-10.
Sambo is a Soviet martial art and combat sport. It originated in the Russian SFSR in Soviet Union. The word "SAMBO" is a portmanteau for samozashchita bez oruzhiya, which literally translates as "self-defense without weapons." Sambo is relatively modern, since its development began in the early 1920s by the Soviet NKVD and Red Army to improve hand-to-hand combat abilities of the servicemen. It was intended to be a merger of the most effective techniques of other martial arts.
