Inam, Zaman to get heroes welcome today

KARACHI: World beach wrestling king Mohammad Inam and Zaman Anwar will be accorded warm welcome upon their arrival in Lahore on Wednesday (today).

Both the grapplers were set to leave Greece Tuesday night. After an eight-hour stop-over at the Dubai International Airport, the duo will reach Lahore at 3:20 pm on Wednesday (today).

Pakistan Wrestling Federation’s (PWF) senior official Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’ that arrangements had been made to receive both the heroes at the Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore on Wednesday.

It was also learnt that both the players would be taken to their hometown in Gujranwala in a convoy and would be received there warmly by the local crowds.

Inam won two back-to-back golds in the Beach Wrestling World Series in Italy and Greece inside a week in the 90 kilogramme competition.

Zaman failed to impress in the Italy event in the +90kg but did well to claim bronze in the Greece event.

The PWF plans to send both Inam and Zaman to Romania for the fourth and last stop of the Beach Wrestling World Series to be held there in Constanta on September 25 and 26.

“Yes, we will apply for the Romania visas for both of them on Monday and after a few days of training they will return to Europe for the final competition,” Arshad said.

Inam had missed the first series in France in July due to visa issues.

Arshad also confirmed that they would not send young Inayatullah to the World Beach Junior Championship to be held in Romania later this month. “Inayat has said that he cannot manage to compete in the 70kg and so we are not sending him,” he said.

Inayat was part of Pakistan’s squad in the World Series in Italy. However, he failed to impress and did not then take part in the Greece series.

Inam has been winning medals in beach wrestling. So far he has secured five world level medals. Besides the recent gold medals in Italy and Greece, he has to his credit two world championships titles and one title of the World Beach Games, hosted by Qatar in Doha in 2019.