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Thursday March 28, 2024

Inam to miss Beach Wrestling World Series in France for visa issue

By Alam Zeb Safi
July 12, 2021

KARACHI: The country’s premier wrestler and global beach wrestling hero Mohammad Inam received a huge blow when he failed to get France visa, which means he will miss Beach Wrestling World Series to be held at Saint-Laurent-du-Var on July 16 and 17.

“Yes, we made efforts but we could not get France visa for Inam due to various reasons,” Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) secretary Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’ on Sunday.

‘The News’ learnt that France embassy was issuing online visas following the anti-France protests in Pakistan. However, sports does not fall in the emergency category.

The PWF contacted United World Wrestling (UWW) but nothing could be done to secure a visa for Inam.

However, this correspondent learnt that Inam, being the winner of 2017 and 2018 World Beach Wrestling Championships held in Turkey and gold medallist of 2019 Doha World Beach Games, would get points despite missing the series in France.

The development left Inam shocked. “It’s really shocking,” Inam told ‘The News’ on Sunday from Gujranwala where he is training. “I worked really hard for the last two months since the event was announced. I left four mud wrestling events where I could have earned around Rs2 million,” he said.

“I reduced 16 kilogramme weight for the France event as my weight had reached 106 kg. I kept tight training and was in top rhythm,” the dejected Inam said.

“I had made top preparation and was very confident. Now I will have to plan again and it will take a few days. I will think about it and will refresh my mind and focus,” he said.

Inam did not know about his visa status when called by this correspondent on Sunday. “Now the issue is that I have lost 25 percent title winning chance if I miss the France event,” he said.

After the France event, a series will be held in Italy from September 3-4 and it will be followed by one in Greece to be held from September 10-11. The final series will be conducted in Romania from September 25-26 which will also be the crowning event.

Besides Inam (-90 kg), the Youth Olympics bronze medallist Inayatullah (70kg) and a couple of other grapplers in the 80kg and +90kg are being fielded in the remaining series.

“Yes, if we are able to add other wrestlers then a proper camp will be set up,” Arshad said.

Inam is regarded as the most dangerous beach grappler in the world. And he has shown this in his previous world events where he toppled the world’s greats.