Seven-day wrestling competition to take place from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2

Mysore/Mysuru: Ending the wait of the wrestling fraternity, the pairing for ‘Naada Kusti’ wrestling competition conducted as part of Mysuru Dasara, was held at Kalinga Rao Bhavan in Dasara Exhibition Grounds premises here on Sunday.

About 450 participants, including women, from Mysuru, Nanjangud, Srirangapatna, Ganjam, Mandya, Bannur and many other places from across the State, took part in the pairing, which saw a huge rush of applicants.

At first, the participants had to fill their age, weight and the name of their Garadi, among other details, in the application form. Later, the senior Pailwans selected the participants on the basis of their capability and paired the competitors in men, women and children categories.

According to Dasara Wrestling Sub-Committee Secretary A.J. Harshavardhan, in all, 140 pairs were finalised to participate in the Dasara wrestling competition, which is going to take place at D. Devaraj Urs Multi-purpose Stadium in Dasara Exhibition Grounds premises from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. The pairs included 15 pairs of women and 20 pairs of children, he said adding that ‘Mayor Cup’ ‘Chief Minister’s Cup’ and other wrestling titles are at stake. He further said that there will be three prizes in each category.

Meanwhile, in what is said to be a first, several competitions were held during the pairing process. The competitions included turning of mace by both the hands, push-ups and sit-ups. Winners are as follows:

Men’s category

Push-ups: Shahid Pasha – 1st, Mohammad Sakib – 2nd and Syed Hussain – 3rd.

Turning of Mace: Salman Khan – 1st, Yeshwanth – 2nd and Younus Khan – 3rd.

Combination of Push-ups & Sit-ups: Akash – 1st, Vikas – 2nd and Syed Hussain – 3rd.

Sit-ups: Vikas – 1st and Syed Hussain – 2nd and Kiran – 3rd.

Boys’ Category

Sit-ups: Nikhil – 1st, Chaitanya – 2nd and Dhanush – 3rd.

Girls’ Category

Combination of Push-ups & Sit-ups: Jahnavi – 1st, Raksha – 2nd and Nandini – 3rd.

Push-ups: Nandini – 1st.

Turning of Mace: Jahnavi – 1st.

The winners will be awarded cash prize and certificates by the Wrestling Sub-Committee.

Earlier, District Minister S.T. Somashekar launched the pairing process for the wrestling competition by patting Pailwans Darshan and R. Kushal on their back. A total of 180 children and wrestlers took part in these competitions.

MP Pratap Simha, MLA G.T. Devegowda, Mayor Shivakumar, KEA Chairman Mirle Srinivas Gowda, SP R. Chetan, Additional SP B.N. Nandini, who is also Dasara Wrestling Sub-Committee Deputy Special Officer, Secretary Harshavardhan, Pailwan S. Mahadev and others were present on the occasion.