Approved by the XVII FIAS Congress Minutes
(November’2006, Sofia, Bulgaria)

In Sambo Competitions Rules (later Rules) the most important issues of officiating, competition organization and the work of officials are dealt with.

The edition is meant for coaches, officials, organizers and broad sections of athletes practicing Sambo.

The Rules are intended for obligatory direction in organization and conduct of Sambo competitions (sports and combat) starting from January 1, 2006.

Part 1.Character and Methods of Conducting Competitions

Article 1.Character of competitions

1. By its character the competitions are divided into:

    a) individual,

    b) team,

    c) individual-team,

    d) classification (Open mat).

2. The character of the competitions is defined by the Competition Regulations (later Regulations) set for a certain contest (see appendix 1).

3. In individual contests only individual results and the places of participants in their weight categories shall by defined.

4. In team competitions the teams meet each other and by the results of these meets the team places shall be defined.

5. In individual-team competitions individual places of participants shall be defined, the place of the team is defined depending on individual results of its contestants and in accordance with the Competition Regulations.

6. In classification competitions individual and team places are not defined, but the results are taken into consideration to improve or confirm the participants' sports qualification.

Article 2.Systems and Methods to Conduct Competitions

1. At the competitions the contestants compete in one group (system with no subgroups) or by means of a draw they are divided into several groups (system with subdivision into subgroups). In the last case the principle according to which the best contestants proceed to the next stage of competitions and the worst ones are eliminated should by explained additionally. In this case the competitions shall be divided into preliminary ones and finals.

2. Within every stage the competitions may be held according to one of the two methods:

    a) circular, when each contestant meets every other ones;

    b) with contestants' elimination after the number of defeats set by the Regulations.

3. The order of bouts among contestants (teams) shall be defined by the drawing of lots (a draw) and chosen system and method to conduct the competitions.

4. The system and the method to conduct preliminary and final parts of the competitions shall be stated by the Regulations.

5. Systems with different variations of combination methods to conduct the preliminary part and the finals are described, as well as the methods of conducting team competitions by the results of which the placing in team competitions is defined (see appendixes 2.1, 2.2; 3.1, 3.2; 4.1, 4.2, 4.3; 5; 6.1, 6.2, 6.3)

Part 2.Contestants

Article 3.Age groups

All the contestants shall be divided into the following age groups:

Groups	Men	Women
Younger children (Kids)	11 – 12 years old	11 – 12 years old
Schoolchildren	13 – 14 years old	13 – 14 years old
Cadets	15 – 16 years olds	15 – 16 years olds
Juniors	17 – 18 years old	17 – 18 years old
Youth	19 – 20 years old	19 – 20 years old
Seniors	19 and older	19 and older
Veterans	35 - 39, 40 - 44, 45 - 49, 50 - 54, 55 - 59	60 and older

Article 4.Admission to the Competitions

1. The conditions of the contestants' admission to the competition, their sports membership, qualification and age, as well as the list of documents to be submitted to the Mandate Commission, shall be stipulated by the competition Regulations. Participants of International Competitions included into the Calendar of the International Amateur Sambo Federation (FIAS) must possess the International competitor's license.

2. Entry lists from an organization for its members' participation shall be made in the prescribed form (appendix 7) with the compulsory, certified by stamps, signatures of the head of the organization, the coach and the doctor verifying the competitors' corresponding readiness. The date to submit preliminary entries is stated by the competition Regulations. The final entry to participate in competitions shall be submitted to the Mandate Commission by the team representative not later than 2 hours before the weigh-in starts.

3. Admission of competitors is accomplished by the Mandate Commission including a representative of the organization conducting the competitions, Chief official or his deputy, Chief Secretary, Chief Doctor and members of the commission who check entries and competitors' documents and their correspondence to the Regulation requirements. The representative of the host organization is responsible for competitors' admission in questionable situations.

4. Competitors' admission is accomplished in accordance with the given Regulations but it is permitted to admit to a certain age group the players who were born a year earlier.

5. Athletes who are of 17 years of age have the right to compete in senior groups.

Article 5.Weight Categories

Participants of competitions are distributed into the following weight categories:

Younger children and schoolchildren		Cadets		Juniors		Youth		Seniors		Veterans
Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Men	Women	Men
30	26	40	32	48	40	48	44	–	–	–
32	28	42	34	52	44	52	48	52	48	–
35	30	45	36	56	48	57	52	57	52	–
38	32	48	38	60	52	62	56	62	56	62
41	34	51	40	65	56	68	60	68	60	68
45	36	55	42	70	60	82	64	74	64	74
49	38	59	45	75	65	90	68	82	68	82
53	41	63	48	81	70	100	72	90	72	90
57	45	68	51	87	+75	+100	80	100	80	100
62	49	73	55	+87			+80	+100	+80	+100
67	53	78	59
+67	+53	+78	+59

In the junior and senior groups (men and women) the competitions for the Absolute Champion may be held without competitors' distribution into weight categories. Minimum weight in such competitions shall be stated in the Regulations.

Article 6.Weigh-in

1. The object of the weigh-in is to state the correspondence of competitors' weight to the limits of one of the weight categories. A competitor has the right to compete at the given competition only in the weight category stated for him at the weigh-in.

2. The order and time of the weigh-in shall be stated in the Regulations. A competitor who is late to the weigh-in or misses it is not admitted to the competitions. During 1 hour before the start of the weigh-in contestants are allowed to get on the scales used for the official weigh-in as many times as they wish. The weigh-in shall be held one time on the first day of competitions or a day before and shall last 1 hour. If the weigh-in is held on the day of the competitions it shall begin not less than 2 hours before the beginning of the competitions. It is allowed to use several scales but competitors of a certain weight category shall be weighed on the same scales.

3. The weigh-in shall be held by officials’ team appointed by the Chief official including a Chief official deputy (one of Mat chairmen), a representative of the competition secretariat, a doctor and two or three officials.

4. Before the weigh-in all the competitors shall undergo appearance medical control held by the competition doctor. Competitors shall be weighed in a special room or behind the screen, half-naked: men wearing athletic supporters, women-low-necked swimsuits.

5. At the weigh-in a competitor shall submit the document with a photo certifying his or her identity, competitor’s license, insurance, medical control card and the filled in form.

6. Results of the weigh-in are entered in the score sheet (appendix 8) that shall be signed by all the members of the officials’ team.