Press releases

MINSK, 2 April (BelTA) – Belarusian athletes won 27 medals at the Russia Open Spochan Championship in Moscow, BelTA learned from head of the Belarusian Spochan Federation Andrei Kalistov.

Belarus clinched 12 gold, nine silver and six bronze medals. The title of the absolute (grand) champion also went to Matvey Yankovsky (Vitebsk), Kirill Gorenyuk (Brest), Beata Esis (Minsk), and Anton Krasovsky (Vitebsk).

Vitebsk athletes Sofia Dubchinskaya, Maria Tatarinova and Artyom Staselko placed third in team fights.

The 15^th Russian Open Spochan Championship featured 160 athletes from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. First Vice President of the International SportsChanbara Association Kenichi Hosokawa was a special guest at the tournament.

Sports chanbara (spochan) is a modern type of Japanese martial arts, a safe method of sword fencing. In Japan spochan is the official sport, as in some countries. In Belarus, it is growing in popularity. This sport is most popular in Vitebsk Oblast, Grodno Oblast, Brest, Mogilev and Minsk.