The new season of the international tournament “Battle of the Cities 2026” is officially open: from April 3 to 6, the Southern Division teams competed on the tatami of the Druzhba sports complex in Rostov-on-Don. The judokas demonstrated the highest level of technique and the will to win, fighting for tickets to the next stage of the tournament.
The first qualifying round was attended by 16 of the strongest teams: “SSHOR Armavir”, “Sokol Ust-Labinsk”, “GAU DO VO SSHOR”, “Pridonye Top Team”, “Fatherland-Don”, SSHOR “Sambo and Judo”, “Tavrida 1”, “Tavrida 2”, KSE “Sevastopol”, “GBU DO SSHOR No. 7”, "SSHOR im. Kobleva”, “Lotus”, as well as teams of the LPR, DPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye.
Four days in Rostov-on-Don kept participants and fans in suspense: the main intrigue was the question of which of the 16 candidates would make it into the coveted “eight” and take a ticket to the second qualifying stage of the “Battle of the Cities 2026” tournament.
In Group A, judoists from “SSHOR Armavir” (Krasnodar region), “GAU DO VO SSHOR” (Volgograd region), LPR and “KSE Sevastopol” competed. The strongest in this quartet were the representatives of Armavir, who during the tournament beat their opponents from the Volgograd region with a score of 13:3, from Lugansk - 13:1, and from Sevastopol - 8:0. The second “ticket” to the next round was given to representatives of the Volgograd region.
In Group B, the teams Sokol Ust-Labinsk (Krasnodar region) and Pridonye Top Team (Volgograd region) scored the same number of points - 29 points each - but the Krasnodar team had the best win/loss difference, so they took the top line of the standings.
In Group C, the leaders were representatives of SSHOR named after. Kobleva" (Republic of Adygea), the first to earn thirteen victorious points in fights with judokas from "SSHOR Rostov" (Rostov region), "Lotus" (Republic of Kalmykia) and "Tavrida 2" (Republic of Crimea). Representatives of the Tavrida 2 team, who lost only to SSHOR im. Kobleva”, eventually received a second ticket from this group.
In Group D, first place was taken by young men from the team “Fatherland - Don” (Rostov region), who turned out to be stronger than the team “Tavrida 1”, and rivals from “Zaporozhye” (Zaporozhye region), and “GBU DO SSHOR No. 7” (Sevastopol). The second place in the standings was taken by representatives of the Tavrida 1 team (Republic of Crimea).
Based on the results of the bouts, tickets to the second qualifying stage were given to: “Sokol Ust-Labinsk” (Krasnodar region), “SSHOR Armavir” (Krasnodar region), “Tavrida 1” (Rep. Crimea), “Fatherland-Don” (Rostov region), “SSHOR im. Kobleva" (Republic of Adygea), "Tavrida 2" (Republic of Crimea), "Pridonye Top Team" (Volgograd region) and "GAU DO VO SSHOR" (Volgograd region).
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all teams for a fair fight.
The battle continues and the next stop of the first qualifying stage is Stavropol, where teams from the North Caucasus Federal District will take part from April 9 to 12.
