Armenian athletes have returned with six medals, including a gold and a silver, from the European championships in the combat sport of sambo that ended in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Sunday.

(Sambo is a Russian acronym for unarmed self-defense. The sport has roots in Japanese judo and karate and began to develop in the Soviet Red Army in the 1920s as a hand-to-hand fight training system; currently it is mostly popular in former Soviet and Eastern bloc countries.)

According to the information reported by the Sambo Federation of Armenia (www.sambo.am), Ashot Danielyan, 74 kg, won the European title in combat sambo beating Russia’s Arsen Temirkhanov in the final fight on May 16.

Earlier, another Armenian sambo fighter Vachik Vardanyan (68 kg) won a silver medal and Artak Tsatinyan (90 kg) won a bronze in combat sambo.

Also, Ruzanna Sargsyan (48 kg), Tigran Kirakosyan (52 kg) and Vahan Vardanyan (57 kg) won bronze medals in sport sambo.

A total of ten athletes represented Armenia at the championships in Minsk.