Inam Butt to compete against Hamid Khan in Rustam-E-Pakistan finale
Star wrestler Muhammad Inam Butt is all set to face Hamid Khan in the final of Rustam-E-Pakistan tomorrow at Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.
Rustum-E-Pakistan is one of the most prestigious Kabaddi events existing in the country and now will be a biennial event. Karachi hosted the event in 2011 at the Asghar Ali Shah Stadium to which Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) Secretary Arshad Sattar said,“There were too many events so we could not hold it during the last few years. Now our general council has decided that as mud wrestling is our traditional wrestling, we should promote it. Now we will hold it after every two years,”
Two wrestlers from each affiliated unit of the PWF took part in the competitions. All units sent the names of two leading wrestlers after formal trials. The pre-quarter-finals were held in Lahore. The quarter-finals and semi-finals were conducted in Bahawalpur and now the final is to be contested in Faisalabad at Iqbal Stadium.
The final of the event between Inam and Hamid will be of 30 minutes duration. If it is not decided in that period, another fight under the rules of mat-wrestling will be held and the wrestler who takes the first point will be declared the winner.
A prize pursue of 500,000 PKR will be awarded to the title winner while the runner-up will get 250,000 PKR. Whereas, 3rd and 4th position holder will also bag Rs. 150,000 and Rs. 100,000, respectively.
This is the first time that Inam is playing a high-level mud wrestling event as he is well known for his incredible talent of mat wrestling. He holds two titles of the Commonwealth Games and two top wins of the World Beach Wrestling Championships. He has also qualified for the World Beach Games which will be held in the United States later this year to which he said,“I have no strong grip on mud wrestling as my whole focus is on mat wrestling but I have prepared myself and will try to win,”
Arshad said that Inam had become a popular seed of mud-wrestling on his debut event. He said Inam’s value had reached around Rs. 300,000 per fight.
On the other hand, Hamid is the current Rustam-E-Multan holding the heavyweight title of 2010 National Games in Peshawar, beating the 2011 Rustam-E-Pakistan Usman Majeed.
