Correspondent
The 28th Naga Wrestling and 2nd Under 16 Naga Wrestling is scheduled to be held on Monday at Khuochiezie (local ground) from 9 a.m. onwards.
A total of 78 wrestlers including 24 for U-16 category will be competing in one of the much-awaited biennial events organised by Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA).
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, NWA president, Dr Hiabe Zeliang, said they have made some tweaks in some of the wrestling rules in order to save unnecessary wastage of time. When two wrestlers are unable to have a decisive 2 bout win, they are made to stand toe to toe and then would wrestle in to ensure that one of the 2 wrestlers would win the match at any cost. In such a situation the new rule implies that a wrestler would be entitled to a maximum of three cautions only, from the referee. After which the defaulting wrestler would have to forfeit the match to his opponent, Dr Hiabe said. This, he added, was to avoid intentional match stalling by players, ensure smooth flow of the matches and save time.
Unlike before, players would also be barred from taking any form of liquid in between bouts.
On doping test issue, Dr. Hiabe informed that due to lack of required facilities, NWA had decided to forego it in this championship.
While registering protest against a referee decision, besides a formal protest from the head coach, no protests from other team officials would be accepted.
In the event of a need to take a decision through VR, the succeeding players in line would continue with the matches and if the players whose bout was under scrutiny needed another bout to decide the match, then they would resume the same subsequently, the president informed.
In the U-16 category, players would have to provide their aadhar card as proof of their age to ensure credibility and excess of even a day in their age would disqualify them from participation, Dr. Hiabe informed.
Meanwhile NWA has requested spectators residing in the vicinity of the venue to leave their vehicles at home and come to watch the event in order to lessen the traffic congestion which had become a huge issue during the event in the past years. The NWA also urged all the spectators to maintain Covid appropriate behaviours and also mandatorily follow the laid down SOPs.
A minimum of Rs 150 would be charged as entry fee, chair tickets would vary from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 while donor will be Rs 3,000. The officials said the ground management team had provided LED screens for the spectators to view the game therefore it urged everyone to maintain decorum as they enjoy the game.
Meanwhile ground management team, Pesocha Baptist Thepfuko Krotho, has informed that they would make varieties of indigenous food items available at the venue which the spectators would be able to procure including Muodi, Muodze, local pork and dogmeat. The team assured the spectators that all the provisions to be sold at the venue would be at market price and therefore the people may not worry of exorbitant prices like some instances in the past.
Smokers have been requested to use the smoking zones provided at the venue while spectators have been requested to use the washrooms, both free and paid, provided separately for men and women at the venue.
PBTK, a conglomeration of 33 churches and 1 fellowship, informed that all the proceeds from the event would be used in construction of their conference hall and the proposed college at Meriema.
In this year’s edition, the champion in senior’s category will walk home with a cash prize of Rs. 3.20 lakh along with championship belt and late Velahu Puro memorial trophy which carries a cash prize of Rs. 30,000. The second position Rs. 2.20 lakh, third position Rs. 1.20 lakh and fourth position Rs. 1 lakh.
In junior category, the winner will receive Rs. 60,000, followed by Rs. 40,000 for second position, third Rs. 30,000 and fourth Rs. 25,000. The NWA had earlier announced that any student(s) reaching quaterfinals will each be provided Rs. 1,000 scholarship per month for a year.
