Possible changes to the number of weight categories was discussed at an International Sambo Federation (FIAS) Executive Board meeting held in Russian capital Moscow in March.

It has now been announced that the changes will be tested for the first time in the Seychelles later this month.

"We decided to carry out this experiment at the upcoming African Championship, which will be soon held in Seychelles," Dalil Scall. President of the African Sambo Confederation, said. 

"According to the results of the tournament, we will be able to get feedback from sportsmen, referees, spectators as well as official representatives of the National Federations."

The vice-president of FIAS, Sergey Eliseev, announced two approaches to this issue in March, which were developed during the analysis of proposals sent to the governing body.

The first was a reduction in the number of weight categories from nine to eight while the second suggested cutting the number to seven.

Following the discussion, members of the FIAS Executive Board agreed that the proposals should be tested at future tournaments.

After the testing it will then be decided whether to go ahead with either option.

"We discussed the possibility of having seven weight categories instead of nine," Eliseev said following the meeting.

"This will give us the opportunity to develop sambo further and make it popular and allow as many countries as possible to win medals.

"We are going to try out competitions with seven categories in future student tournaments."