Sambo wrestlers bring glory to Sunderland at the British Open Championships

Red Star Sambo Sunderland is based at a Roker Avenue gym, where fighters get into shape for battle.

Sambo is a discipline similar to judo. It was designed and used by the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to hone their hand-to-hand combat skills.

It’s a tough sport, but increasingly popular in the UK. Red Star was one of 22 clubs from a range of countries to compete at the British Open Sport Sambo Championship in Folkstone, Kent. Other participating nations included Ukraine, the Netherlands, Estonia and Germany.

Six fighters brought back eight medals back to Sunderland from a very successful championship.

Phillip Foster, 51, took under-79kg masters (over-45s gold) and silver in the seniors’ category. Mark Stuck, 38, from Whitburn entered the masters and senior divisions over-98kg taking silver in both and only narrowly losing out in both finals.

Stanislav Struzhanoff, 39, originally from Latvia, earned himself a silver medal in the masters under-88kg division losing to an MMA legend and BJJ black belt. He took bronze medal in the senior division.

Adam Jones, 29, has been training at the club for just 10 months. Despite this he almost took bronze in the under-88kg category, but ultimately lost out to Stanislav in a third place decider.

The club’s coach, Barry Gibson, 48, himself took gold in the over-98kg (heavyweight) category, adding to his World Masters bronze medal and Commonwealth gold medal from previous years. Barry has also represented Britain in five world championships.

He said: “Sambo is massively popular internationally and it’s gaining popularity in Great Britain. It’s been around here since the 80s, but it’s very much coming to the forefront now.

“As a coach I’m dead proud. Our club is 11 years old and for a long time it was just myself competing. Now I’ve got people coming with me who have had a great deal of success, partly because the popularity of the sport is growing.

“The success of the lads at the British Open and the other recent events have meant more to me than my own. It’s amazing to see their progress and watch them reaching and exceeding potential.”

For more information, visit the club’s Facebook page.