Home favourite Yury Rybak prevented Russia from claiming victories in all eight finals in which they were represented on the final day of the 2017 European Sambo Championships ©FIAS

Home favourite Yury Rybak prevented Russia from claiming victories in all eight finals in which they were represented on the final day of the 2017 European Sambo Championships here after beating Aslan Kambiev to the men's over 100 kilograms gold medal.

The Belarusian, a 2015 world bronze medallist, established a match-winning eight-point lead over Kambiev, who was the only Russian to suffer defeat in a final today.

Bronze medals in the men’s over 100kg category went the way of Spain’s David Fernandez and Georgia’s Beka Berdzenishvili.

Russia were rampant from the outset this evening, winning the opening six finals.

The first four of those were all won inside the distance, starting with Anastasia Valova’s victory over Belarus’ Krystsina Kazanoy in the women’s 56kg gold medal match.

Vladimir Berezovskiy then made short work of Armenia’s Artur Saakyan in the men’s 62kg, before Vladimir Lamanov crushed Armenia’s Grigor Mhitaryan in the combat sambo 52kg and Anastasia Khomiachkova comfortably overcame Serbia’s Ivana Jandric in the women’s 68kg.

Bronze medals were won by France’s Laure Fournier and Ukraine’s Nataliya Ilkiv in the women’s 56kg, Georgia’s Zviad Odoshashvili and Estonia’s Vadim Fomin in the men’s 62kg, Lithuania’s Gintapas Katkus in the combat sambo 52kg, and Ukraine’s Kateryna Moskalova and Belarus’ Anzhela Zhylinskaya in the women’s 68kg.

The first Russian to face any sort of challenge was Ali Kurzhev, who had to hold off a late surge from Belarus’ Tsimafei Yemelyanau to secure a 5-4 win in the men’s 82kg final.

Normal service was soon resumed, however, as Pavel Panteleev cruised to a 6-0 victory at the expense of France’s Antoine Lefevre - the only athlete from a Western European nation to reach a final throughout the Championships - to take the combat sambo 68kg crown.

Russia's Ali Kurzhev struck gold in the men's 82kg final ©FIAS
Russia's Ali Kurzhev struck gold in the men's 82kg final ©FIAS

Ukraine’s Oleksii Nizhenko and Georgia’s Niko Kutsia were the men’s 82kg bronze medallists, while Bulgaria’s Ivan Krastev and Lithuania’s Aurimas Krukauskas shared the third step of the combat sambo 68kg podium. 

Russia’s seventh gold medal of the day was won by Sultan Aliev after he quickly gained a decisive eight-point advantage over Belarus’ Vladzimir Sutotski in the competition-ending combat sambo 90kg final.

Victory took his country’s overall gold medal tally to 18 from 27 categories and meant that Russia had triumphed in all nine of the combat sambo divisions.

Ukraine’s Petro Davydenko and Armenia’s Edgard Mehrabyan were the combat sambo 90kg bronze medallists.

The only final not to feature a Russian today was that in the women’s over 80kg category, which saw Ukraine’s Anastasiya Sapsai defeat Georgia’s Elene Kebadze 8-2.

France’s Elena Chirac and Russia’s Anna Balashova rounded out the podium.

Of the nine gold medals not won by Russia at the Championships, Belarus won three, Ukraine and Georgia claimed two apiece and Armenia and Bulgaria secured one each.

Next year’s European Sambo Championships are scheduled to take place in Greece’s capital Athens.

Dates for the event have yet to be confirmed.