By what was seemingly nothing more than a coincidence, the European Olympic Committees (EOC) confirmed on the eve of the three-day event that sambo would be one of the 16 sports on the Minsk 2019 programme.

This very venue had been cited as a potential setting for sambo, only for it to be confirmed yesterday that the multi-purpose Uruchie Sports Palace will instead host competition.

The sport's inclusion on the programme has been hailed by International Sambo Federation (FIAS) President Vasily Shestakov as a "great success", marking a second successive appearance after it featured at the inaugural edition in Azerbaijan's capital Baku in 2015.

But with the Games still more than two years away, the Russian certainly has more pressing matters to deal with between now and then.

Of particular importance is the world governing body's attempts to maintain its place on the programme of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.

Shestakov insists sambo has not yet definitely been removed from the Games in Indonesia, despite it being revealed last month that the sport was among those to be cut in order to reduce the burden on organisers.

The changes, which also saw cricket, skateboarding and surfing taken off the list, mean that the total number of sports on the programme should be between 38 and 40, with question marks over equestrian and roller skating.

This consists of the 42 sports announced in early March minus cricket and surfing.

However, the number is slightly confusing because the five martial arts of ju-jitsu, kurash, sambo, wushu and pencak silat were grouped together as one sport.

Skateboarding was also due to be combined with roller skating as one sport.

Perhaps, it is in this lack of clarity where hope still lies for sambo.

Also high in Shestakov's in-tray is the continuing push for recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Sambo was one of 14 sports to miss out on provisional recognition from the IOC in December as the International Cheer Union and International Federation of Muaythai Amateur were both accepted.

It marked the latest snub for the FIAS which had been hopeful of being put forward for full recognition at the IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro in August, only to be overlooked along with several other Federations.

But speaking to insidethegames here at the European Championships, Shestakov implied it is a question of when and not if the FIAS will get over the line.

Efforts are certainly being made to meet the recommendations of the IOC, whose sports coordination manager Mike Joyce was among those in attendance at this weekend's event. 

At the African Sambo Championships held in Seychelles earlier this month, the FIAS experimented with holding contests in seven weight categories as opposed to the traditional nine.

Sergey Eliseev, a vice-president of FIAS, described it as a "forced reform" as part of sambo's bid for IOC recognition.

The European Sambo Federation President also confirmed that plans are in place to hold seven-category tournaments among students, prior to analysing the situation and making a decision.

Arguably the biggest challenge facing sambo in terms of the IOC's eight-point evaluation criteria for recognition of an International Federation is its universality.

As has been seen at these Championships, Eastern European nations, particularly Russia with their 18 gold medals from 27 categories, are still very much the dominant force.

France were the only Western European country to be represented in a final thanks to Antoine Lefevre's performance in the combat sambo 68 kilograms category today. 

He was comfortably beaten, however, by Russia's Pavel Panteleev in the battle for a place atop the podium.

Barring that, Croatia was the most central nation to grace a gold medal match, courtesy of Maja Blagojevic's run in the women's 64kg category yesterday.

Unfortunately for her, she missed out on top honours to, you guessed it, an Eastern European nation as Tatsiana Matsko of host country Belarus triumphed.

A similar trend was seen at last year's European Championships in Kazan, where hosts Russia claimed 16 of the 27 gold medals on offer.

Georgia were the runners-up with four titles, while Belarus came third with three and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Romania all came away with one apiece.

So will we see a change at next year's European Championships in Greece's capital Athens?  

One would expect the event will come around too soon to see any significant differences, but the FIAS must continue to spread the word about sambo if they are to become apparent at future editions.

Indeed, the body is striving to do so by casting its broadcasting net far and wide.

Shestakov points out that last year’s World Championships in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia were shown live in 15 countries, while FIAS’s Facebook Live coverage of this year’s Sambo World Cup in Moscow attracted 350,000 views.

Television channel Kombat Sport, meanwhile, provides regular sambo highlights and programmes to 40 French-speaking countries.

Given Russia's domination of the sport, Shestakov has claimed that IOC recognition is not that crucial for the nation and is more important for the European, African and Pan-American countries who are seeking Governmental support and funding.

"We hope that the IOC's highest authorities understand that we're speaking of about 120 different nations here and each one of them is hoping and wanting to be recognised," he told insidethegames.

From June 21 to 30, 2019, sambo will stand side-by-side with 13 Olympic sports at the European Games in Minsk, as well as beach soccer and 3x3 basketball.

Whether the sport will be any closer to achieving its own dream of becoming an Olympic sport by then remains to be seen, but what cannot be doubted it that it is forever looking at new ways to meet the IOC's requirements. 

Setbacks have been prevalent in recent times and could have led the FIAS to spit the dummy out.

However, it is still knocking on the IOC's door and maybe one day will make the breakthrough.