Ariyawat Noamsawat
Next month will see muscles rippling and bodies sweating as amateur wrestlers from 23 countries descend on Pattaya to compete in the Asian Senior Wrestling Championship 2009 from May 2-7.
The Thai Amateur Wrestling Association (TAWA) is co-operating with Pattaya City, the Sports Authority of Thailand and TAT to organize the wrestling championships and full details of the event were disclosed at a meeting held on April 3 at Pattaya City Hall.
Assistant Professor Vangsan Suchantabutr, TAWA president, chaired the meeting and confirmed that this will be the first time the competition has been held in Thailand. More than 500 athletes, coaches and judges will be at the tournament taking place at the Ambassador City Hotel in Jomtien.
There will be two competitions for 25 gold medals. Twenty one medals will be wrestled for indoors at the Convention Hall and four medals competed for at an outdoor beach wrestling venue. All admission for spectators is free.
Prof Vangsan said that his association was very proud to be given the job as hosts and organizers. He said normally the association held its competitions in the Minibut Building in Bangkok but it would bring this important event to Pattaya to help boost tourism in the city.
Jarin Nopparat, TAWA secretary, said that it was a good sign that many member countries decided to send wrestlers, including the newly-formed Singapore Amateur Wrestling Association which will send a team.
Some 50 Thai wrestlers have been training since February at the Physical Education Institute’s Bangkok campus with 25 having already been selected for the competition.
TAWA expects the meet to provide little more than experience at the Asian competition level for Thai athletes because wrestling is not a popular sport in the Kingdom. Thai wrestling is only ranked seventh or eight in Asia but the team has chances to win at least one silver medal in beach wrestling and two bronze medals in the indoor competition, Jarin said.
