Turkmen sambo athletes won four medals at the jubilee 50th World Sambo Championships that concluded in Tashkent.
The largest international tournament in Uzbekistan, with a total prize fund of 363,000 US dollars, gathered 508 athletes from 101 states, who over three days contested 33 sets of medals in three disciplines among men and women: sport sambo, combat sambo and blind sambo. A landmark event of the competitions was the inclusion of women's blind sambo competitions (in the SVI1 class) in the program – for the first time in the history of the International Sambo Federation (FIAS), which emphasizes the organization's commitment to the principles of inclusivity.
All four awards of the Turkmen national team were won in the "combat sambo" discipline, adding two gold and two bronze medals to the team's tally. According to the championship regulations, the triumphant winners of the tournament earned 4,000 dollars each, silver medalists – 3,000 dollars each, and bronze medal winners – 2,000 dollars each.
On the first day of the competitions, the title of world champion was won by the 21-year-old Master of Sports of International Class, first-year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, Sanjarbek Avazberdiyev from the Dashoguz velayat. He took first place in the weight category up to 64 kg, where 18 athletes competed for the medals.
On the second competition day, gold was brought to the team's tally by the 28-year-old Master of Sports of International Class, Muminjan Arzikulov. He became the strongest in the weight category up to 71 kg among 27 competitors from all over the planet. M. Arzikulov successfully combines active performances in sports with coaching activity at the 5th sports school of the Garlyk settlement of the Koytendag etrap of the Main Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Lebap velayat.
The bronze medalists of the world championship were an employee of the Ministry of National Security of Turkmenistan, Ahmet Tanriberdiyev, and a third-year student of the Turkmen State Architecture and Construction Institute, Kurbanay Kurbanova.
The 31-year-old Master of Sports of International Class, Ahmet Tanriberdiyev, competed in the weight category up to 58 kg with the participation of 16 athletes. In the first bout, he confidently defeated the 24-year-old bronze medalist of the 2026 European Championship, Vladyslav Kyrylyuk from Ukraine, with a score of 4:0, and in the second, he achieved a crushing victory over the 25-year-old two-time medalist of the World Cup and 2026 European Championship, Narek Goginyan from Armenia – 9:0. In the semifinal bout, Ahmet lost with a score of 0:5 to the three-time world champion Bayanduuren Gantumur from Mongolia, rising for the first time in his career to the third step of the world championship podium. Let us recall that earlier his record included a victory at the 2025 World Cup in Tajikistan and silver at the 2026 World Cup in Armenia.
The 21-year-old Master of Sports, Kurbanay Kurbanova, competed in the weight category up to 50 kg among 10 participants. On her path to the bronze medal, she achieved a bright early victory over Yulia Zasulska from Ukraine with a score of 10:1. In the semifinal, the Turkmen athlete lost to the silver medalist Zhadyra Paiyz from Kazakhstan, winning a world championship medal for the first time. Earlier in the current year, Kurbanay also became the holder of a silver award at the World Cup in Yerevan.
It is worth noting the dynamics of the performances of the Turkmenistan national team on the world arena: thus, at last year's world championship in Bishkek, Turkmen sambo athletes won five silver and three bronze medals.
