Inayatullah bags gold, Inam to face Iranian grappler in final today

Beach World Wrestling Championships

KARACHI: Pakistan’s highly talented young wrestler Inayatullah on Friday night created history when he lifted gold medal in the cadet category of the Beach World Wrestling Championships in Dalyan, Turkey.

Inayat, who recently won silver in the cadet category of the Asian Championships, surprised everyone with his calibre when he downed Amir Hossein of Iran 3-0 in the -70 kilogramme competitions final.

Inayat is the son of Zahid Khan, a former national grappler from Peshawar. Zahid also coached his son and is accompanying him on the tour.

“It’s a great achievement and I am very happy with the output,” Inayat said in a video message.

“I am also thankful to Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) and its secretary Arshad Sattar who gave me the chance to feature in the world event. I dedicate my gold to the whole nation,” Inayat said.

PWF secretary Arshad told ‘The News’ that Inayat would turn out to be a great asset for the country. “He is an amazing boy. This is the first time that we have grabbed gold medal at the world level,” he said.

Arshad pointed out that playing on soil in Pakistan gave a great advantage to Inyat.

“You know, most of the time our wrestlers play on soil. And they start playing on mat when they have to compete in international events. And beach wrestling conditions are similar to ours. Had we fielded more wrestlers we could have won more medals,” Arshad conceded.

Earlier in the semi-final, Inayat defeated Ahmet Faruk Uguz of Turkey 3-0. In the quarter-final, he whacked Ibrahim Samil Ozak of Turkey 3-2 after a sweating contest.

Meanwhile another good news for Pakistan is that the country’s seasoned grappler and beach Asian gold medallist Mohammad Inam qualified for the final of the -90kg senior category competitions.

Inam, also the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games gold medallist, will face Pejman Fazlollah Tabar Naghrachi of Iran in the final on Sunday (today).

Inam had defeated Fazlollah in the last Asian Beach Championship final in Vietnam. And it’s a great chance for Inam to repeat his performance against his Iranian rival.

“I am very confident that Inam will win the final,” Arshad said.

Inam, also a graduate, took a superb start to his category’s freestyle competitions on Saturday when he outgunned Carlos Roberto Quintana Orozlo of Mexico 4-0 in the first round  to make it to the quarter-finals. And there he upstaged Petridis Christos of Greece 3-0 to take a further step towards finishing at the top. He then overcame Pavlidid Theodosios of Greece 3-0 in the semi-final to set up a title clash with Pejman Fazlollah.

Pakistan has fielded only two grapplers in the competitions due to financial issues. This correspondent learnt that the PWF managed the tour and Inam is himself meeting some of the expenses of the three-member contingent during their stay in Turkey. And a source said that money was borrowed to purchase tickets for the touring party.