They Emerged Three Times Golden from the “Storm” on Mat

For the first time, a world championship in sambo (short for unarmed self-defense), a purely Russian variety of wrestling, has been held in Europe’s extreme west, in the Spanish city of Hihon. The masters of sambo from Ukraine won, as a result, eighteen medals and the second overall team ranking. Very few sports can boast such an achievement.

“Which dreams came and did not come true?” men’s team senior coach, Lviv-based Mykhailo Yunak, was lost in thought for a second. “My dream is to outdo the national team of Russia. It is still a dream, for my pupils have again come off second best. But I think this dream will come true as soon as at the next world championship to be held, as you know, in 2000 in Kyiv. This is not bravado but a sober assessment of the situation. Our Ukrainian team is very young, with only a few weight categories represented by veterans, such as the many times world and European champion Rostyslav Borysenko from Kyiv. The lads’ potential was quite evident even in Spain. It is a nuisance that Kharkiv- based Viktor Savinov (68 kg) lost the gold medal in his bout with a Russian. Mykhailo Bakin from Kerch, Lviv- based Ruslan Zadvorny and Serhiy Onyshchuk (both coached by Hennady Horokhov) burned out too early, and our best judo master Ruslan Mashurenko, who came out on the sambo mat for the first time, was quite capable of taking first place. Anyway, the bronze he won is quite a successful debut.

Three-times women’s sambo champion, Kyivan Svitlana Lysianska, was invincible in Hihon. Each of her appearances on the mat literally radiated self-confidence, and she made quick work of her rivals in a matter of minutes, showing a tough and fast technique. Even the much- acclaimed Russian, Oksana Boltenkova, failed to stand her ground in the final bout under this irresistible pressure. Now Svitlana has a collection of four gold medals.

As to Vitaliya Vrublevska from Mariupol, she was a pleasant surprise. World champion in 1995, she seemed to have been under a shadow since then. Of course, she would win prizes but never achieved any brilliant or convincing victories. Well, we can only take our hats off to this courageous and dedicated athlete from Donetsk oblast. She was rewarded for this by her second championship title. To be frank, nobody expected any absolute success from Tetiana Chorna, a fourth-year student at the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The team would have been grateful to her if she, the world junior champion, had brought home any adult medal. For she is so young, just turned twenty, with a lifetime of sambo ahead. But future forensic scientist Chorna conducted her sports expert examination on the mat excellently, to say the least. And, although in contrast to her teammate, the experienced Lysianska, she won her victory by the skin of her teeth, the more weighty is the result! Suffice it to remember the bout with a Japanese girl dubbed the Asian typhoon for her vigorous and flamboyant style. She took the challenge, held out, gave a fitting rebuff, and was, as a result, more active and hence stronger.

“The Hihon championship is now behind us, so all our thoughts are connected with Kyiv which will host the next world championship at the turn of the century,” Ukraine’s top-most samboist, first vice-president of the World Sambo Federation, Oleksandr Naukhatko, summed up the Spanish meet. “Of course, we will do our best that this fete on our soil be remembered by all and attract a new generation of children to our sambo schools. This will be a victory for them all. So see you in Kyiv!”