PANAJI: Pro Panja League, India’s biggest arm-wrestling tournament, which is in affiliation with the Indian Arm-Wrestling Federation, announced the date and venue of the highly-anticipated Ranking Tournament. The event, which will see the participation of over 1100 arm-wrestlers, will be the biggest arm-wrestling competition in Asia. It will kick off on 22nd July at Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh with the weigh-in ceremony of all the participating arm-wrestlers. The Preliminary stages of the competition will take place on 23rd July, and the finals will take place on 24th July, states a press release.
After the ranking tournament, the arm-wrestlers will be drafted into teams for the main league, which is expected to begin by October. Between the ranking tournament and the main league, ‘Mega Matches’ between top-ranked Pro Panja arm-wrestlers will also be conducted.
Further explaining the process, Pro Panja League co-founder, Parvin Dabas said: “The Pro Panja Ranking Tournament is our way of giving every player a level playing field to get into the League and ensure the only thing that counts is the talent and strength they show on the Arm-Wrestling Table. We will be making the six teams for Pro Panja League after the Ranking Tournament via a draft system where the top 18 players in all the 10 weight categories will get into the League. May the best athlete win.”
The 2022 edition of Pro Panja saw massive interest from arm-wrestlers from across the country with around 1121 arm-wrestlers registering for the event for the upcoming season. Compared to the previous edition, the number of registrations has seen exponential growth this season – nearly three times of the Ranking event.
Of all the participants who have registered, 897 are men, while 174 are women, and 37 belong to the specially-abled category. Kerala turned out to be the state with the maximum number of participants registering, with a total of 180 arm-wrestlers (Women: 33, Men:147) entering their names. Uttar Pradesh (140), and Madhya Pradesh (125) are the two other states which saw the most participation.
