DUSHANBE, February 14, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- First legendary Tajik sambo world champion Saidmumin Rahimov died in Dushanbe on February 13, aged 62.

Smabo (self-defense without weapons) is combat sport and self-defense system developed in the Soviet Union and recognized as an official sport by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee in 1938.

Saidmumin Rahimov won world cup at the SAMBO World Championship in the -100 kg category in Minsk, Belarus in September 1975.  No one of Tajik sambo wrestlers has reached this level so far.

Besides, Saidmumin Rahimov won the Soviet Union sambo championships twice – in 1973 and 1975.

For a long time, Saidmumin Rahimov had been chief coach of Tajikistan’s national sambo team.  From 1995 to 2004, he headed the Committee for Sports and Physical Training under the Government of Tajikistan and in 2004-2008, Siadmumin Rahimov was head of Tajikistan’s Judo Federation.