PRESENTED by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the 11th Asia-Oceania Sambo Championships will be held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Malate, Manila starting June 23, 2026.
"We had expected only about 500 athletes but those numbers are swelling since we presently have about 400 of them already. We could end up with over 600 grapplers from 31 countries," said Pilipinas Sambo Federation Inc. president Paolo Tancontian.
Tancontian said that regional neighbor Cambodia, with its thriving sambo community, is fielding a 42-member squad that will seek to dominate the five-day meet sanctioned by the International Sambo Federation (FIAS).
"These numbers may seem small for team sports, but for sambo that is a lot of entries," Tancontian said.
He disclosed that even distant Asian countries Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, Iran and Syria, and Oceania nations Australia and New Zealand are keenly interested in joining the sambo tournament.
"We are hoping that all 36 countries of the Sambo Union of Asia and Oceania to send teams. If we get 31 nations, I would be very happy," he said.
PSC chairman Patrick Gregorio said this positive and encouraging development was another sign that the government sports agency's advocacy in supporting sports tourism was a worthwhile economic endeavor.
"Hosting a well-organized international competition like the forthcoming 11th Asia-Oceania Sambo Championships is always a welcome enterprise that generates income for both the government and the tourism industry," Gregorio said.
"Sports events like these are win-win situations for all: the foreign visitors, fans, and the various stakeholders involved in staging them."
The PSC chief also said that Administrative Order 38 signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last October creating the National Sports Tourism Inter-Agency Committee (NST-IAC) has been a huge boon on this score.
"With each staging of an international meet in our country, the NST-IAC has provided the proper guidance and framework so that these sports and tourism showcases can really shine and leave long lasting memories," Gregorio, who also heads the group, said.
"Integral to these, of course, was exposing our visitors to our world-renowned Filipino hospitality that is unmatched anywhere. The overall template and formula in staging successful international tournaments locally is now there, and we continue to adjust and tweak it so that successive ones can be better than before," he added.
