Srinagar, May 28: The JK Arm Wrestling team has brought laurels for state by winning two medals in the 33rd National Arm Wrestling Championship held at Technia Auditorium, Rohini, New Delhi held from May 20 to 24.
 Comprising nine arm wrestlers, the team succeeded in bagging two medals while two players were able to make it to the semi-final. Rest of the competitors also performed well but were not able to go beyond quarter stage.
 It is first time that JK team showed such a performance in the National Arm Wrestling event and for that they were praised by the organisers, Delhi Arm Wrestling Association and Indian Arm Wrestling Federation (IAWF) officials.
 Prior to the competition the JK team hopes were pinned on state champion Muhammad Imran .He lived up to the expectations  by bagging gold in his category while Suhail Ahmad bagged bronze in same category.
 Imran and Suhail were competing in Junior, 78-kilogram category. In his first bout Imran pinned his opponent of Delhi easily while in his second bout against competitor from Kerala he had to sweat it hard. He pulled win from inches of being pinned himself. From there on competition only started to get harder and harder for him and he was getting tough competition from other competitors. In final he was up against competitor from Punjab who was considered hot favourite to win the gold. But Imran showed his class and did not gave his opponent time to concentrate on the match, pinned as quickly as he could do. It was like a flash and Imran was crowned junior champion. The whole JK team celebrated the win and joy only doubled when Suhail won bronze medal in same category by winning classification match for third and fourth place.
 The other two competitors of state Majid Ahmad and Aijaz Ahmad Khandey were able to reach upto semi-final stage in senior category. Before loosing semi-final match Majid won two bouts while Aijaz won three. The fifth competitor of state Safeer Ahmad would have won atleast bronze medal if referee would not have ruled foul against him. Despite pinning his opponent easily in semi-final he ended on loosing side because of the foul.
 Back home jubilant over the performance of players, J&K Arm Wrestling Association has hailed players for their performance and has hoped that in coming time JK will rule national arm wrestling arena.
 “It was first time that JK was being represented by such a strong side. Proving their worth and talent players performed brilliantly even better than what we were expecting from them. All the players were first time participating in national event and to perform like this is big achievement” said Association General Secretary, Tanveer Ali Irfan.
 The four players of team have got selection for World Championship that is scheduled to be held either in Dubai or Ukraine. The players are jubilant with their performance and are hoping that they will find sponsors now for the world event.
 “For participating in national event I spent all money out of my own pocket. Being in country it was not much difficult to bear the expenses but for world event it is almost impossible for me” said Imran.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 IST