Inam hopes for dazzling start at world beach wrestling

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier wrestler and world beach wrestling king Mohammad Inam will be looking to take a bright start when he competes in the Beach Wrestling World Series first stop which will begin on Saturday (today) at Ortaca-Sarigerme, Turkey.

Inam, who left for Turkey late Thursday night, was scheduled to arrive in Dalaman at 6pm PST on Friday.

On Saturday (today) group matches and quarter-finals will be conducted. On Sunday (tomorrow) semi-finals and finals will be held.

Ghulam Fareed, who coached Inam at Lahore for the last one and a half months, was quite optimistic about Inam’s gold chances in the first stop. “He is in top shape,” Fareed told ‘The News’ from Lahore. “He has worked very hard during last one and a half months where he also participated in the Asian Championship. He is in great form and I am very much hopeful that he will win the title,” Fareed said.

Inam last year made headlines when he lifted two back-to-back titles in the Beach Wrestling World Series in Italy after missing out the first stop of the series in France due to visa issue.

He is also a two-time World Championship gold medallist and gold medallist of the World Beach Games held in Doha a few years ago.

Inam is accompanied by Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) senior official Mohammad Riaz as a coach.

The second stop of the Beach Wrestling World Series will be held in Spain from June 18-19. France will host the third stop from July 1-2. Greece will conduct the fourth stop from July 9-10. The final stop of the series is to be hosted by Romania in Constanta from September 3-4.

At the end, a few top-ranked grapplers will be shortlisted who will feature in the World Beach Games to be held next year.