KUCHING: The world’s top eight arm wrestlers will converge here to compete against each other in the first of three tournaments to kick off the new format for the Arm Wrestling Champions League.
This was disclosed at a press conference held jointly by the organisers, Professional Armwrestling League (PAL), Premier 101 and Sarawak Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah yesterday.
The 4th Premier 101 International Charity Armwrestling Competetion held 5 and 6 April will also be the host for the first time to the Vandetta Top 8 competition which will be held concurrently at the Pullman Hotel here.
Another first will be the Vandetta format where lower ranking wrestlers can challenge higher ranking wrestlers to raise their current rankings and to ultimately enter or qualify for the Top 8. The minister who was happy with preparations made so far called for more participation amongst locals with a plea to media practitioners to help promote the event more robustly.
“Although it is a relatively new sport we can see it is growing at a fast pace and it will be a matter of time before it is a Sukma sport, meanwhile with the PAL already here our local arm wrestlers
can now have a path towards a professional career in the sport,” he said.
“Don’t look down on ourselves, now our own home grown competition will have international status because it is a recognised entry point to gain worldwide ranking and PAL has agreed to start Top 8 for different weight categories so our smaller built citizens can also be world champions one day,” he added.
President of the Professional Armwrestling League, Igor Marzurenko thanked the ministry and the minister for helping to bring the event to Kuching
He assured the minister that the keen following of fans that the league has will now be very familiar with Kuching.
“Our number 1 at the moment is from Georgia, he weighs 180 kgs and one in ten people in Georgia is his ardent follower so you can be sure that at least 10 percent of Georgians already know exactly where Kuching is,” he said.
A total of 175,000 USD is up for grabs in terms of prizes with 12 categories of competition in total.
Also present yesterday were a permanent secretary to the Ministry Hii Chang Kee, tournament director Datuk Sri Teng Chi Lik and and an international arm wrestling referee Zil Fadil.
