A Pan American SAMBO Union was created on June 27th at a congress, held in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic).
22 national federations heads were present at the meeting, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Saint Lucia, USA, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Chile, Jamaica. The head of the Colombian SAMBO Federation Omar Lopera was elected as Union president, while Eliseo Romero (Dominican SAMBO Federation), has been appointed as secretary general of the confederation. Jason Fraser (Trinidad and Tobago), Mikhail Kozitsky (USA) and Juan Pablo Melo (Argentina) were elected as vice-presidents.
FIAS Vice-President, the head of the European and All-Russian SAMBO Federation Sergey Eliseev became the honor guest who visited the founding congress. In his speech, he congratulated the participants on the decision made and pointed out the need for joint efforts in the development and popularization of SAMBO in the Pan American continent.
“Last year the International SAMBO Federation received a temporary recognition of the International Olympic Committee. Today we continue to work on the development of SAMBO around the world. And for us, the activity of each national and continental federation is very important. I am very pleased that today Pan-American confederation has joined the European, Asian and African federations,” Eliseev stressed.
Source: sambo.sport
