Cameroonian Seidou Nji Moulu was part of two African SAMBO Championships that were held in his country. The first occasion was in 2014 and happened again in 2022.
Between these bright events, in 2020, Seidou became the first African to win gold at the World SAMBO Championships, becoming the idol of many martial arts fans on the continent.
He spoke to the FIAS website, the Cameroonian told how the popularity of SAMBO in his country has grown over 8 years, whether he feels like a sports star, and more.
– Seidou, in July Cameroon hosted the African SAMBO Championships, in which you took part. Please share your impressions of this tournament – what would you like to celebrate after a while?
– First of all, I take my hat off to all the participating countries of the championship who were able to come to this holiday in Cameroon and perform at the tournament. Secondly, I express my deep gratitude to all the organizers: the competitions were held at a very high level.
Separately, I want to note the fact that the championship did without serious injuries. This was the result of the well-coordinated work of doctors and, of course, the increased level of training of African athletes. Thanks to these factors, we were able to minimize the number of injuries and damage in competition.
I also want to note the special atmosphere that prevailed during the entire championship. This is probably only possible in Africa and only in Cameroon. This amazing atmosphere was transmitted to absolutely all the participants of the tournament and charged them with additional energy. During the competition, old friends met again and new acquaintances were made, we exchanged information and shared experiences, communicating all together, like one big African SAMBO family.
– It turns out that the tournament gave sambists a boost for the year ahead?
– Of course, I have only positive impressions from the last championship, but, of course, we see that we lack such events. Both Cameroon and other African countries are full of enthusiasm to host major sporting events – both continental and international. If more tournaments are held in Africa, this will help improve the overall level of sambists, promote – in different countries, and certainly increase the chances of our favorite sport to get into the Olympic Games program.
Cameroon is capable of hosting high-level competitions, this has been noted by many. Therefore, we hope that the next stage after the two African Championships held in our country will be some major international tournament: the World Cup or the World Championship. I think this would be a booster for the promotion of SAMBO in our country and on the continent. Moreover, during the tournament, we all saw the interest of the state, in particular the Minister of Sports, in SAMBO, as well as a large number of spectators in the stands.
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