Nagpur: Maharashtra Armwrestling Association (MAWA) and Samta Sporting Club Nagpur under the aegis People’s Armwrestling Federation India will be organising 5th National Arm Wrestling and Para Armwrestling Tournament in Nagpur. The tournament will be held from June 7 to 9 at Dr Vasantrao Deshpande hall, Civil Lines, Nagpur.
Addressing a press conference, General Secretary of MAWA Dr Shrikant Warankar said, “Nagpur will be hosting the National Arm Wrestling and Para Arm Wrestling Tournament which will be held in sub-junior, junior, youth senior and masters categories. Around 2000 players from Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra Manipur, Meghalaya Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal will be taking part in the competition”.
The tournament will have 250 categories in which players will showcase their talent in their respective categories. Apart from the players 87 referees and 40 officials will be in the city for this meet. The tournament which will witness more than 100 international and professional players will be inaugurated on June 7 at 10:30 am by President of Maharashtra Armwrestling Association Preeti Jhangiani.
“From this tournament teams for World Championships which will be taking place at Moldova in Europe and for Asian Championships which will be held in India in the month of November be selected,” said Warankar.
The 108-member strong Maharashtra team comprising 50 Nagpur players including their star campaigner Dara Singh Handa will look to pocket a handful of medals. In the previous nationals held at Mathura, Maharashtra players won 21 medals including 13 gold medals.
The Indian teams for the World Championship and Asian Cup tournament will be selected.
Talking about Maharashtra’s performance at the national level he said, “ Maharashtra is performing well. In the last national meet which was held in Mathura Maharashtra was successful in clinching 21 medals including 13 gold medals. This time we are hopeful that the number of medals will increase in Nagpur.
Renowned players like Dara Singh Handa of Nagpur, who was crowned champion of champions in the earlier tournament, Touhid Sheikh from Aurangabad will be seen in action.
