New Delhi [India], December 26 : Haryana's Yogesh Choudhary and Assam's Deepankar Mech were adjudged as Female Champion of Champions and Male Champion of Champions at the recently concluded Shillong Armfight-All India Championship 2023, held in Shillong at the U Soso Tham Auditorium. The two-day All India Championship saw the participation of nearly 300 Armwrestlers from different parts of the country.
The Championship was organized by the Meghalaya Armwrestling Association and the Bouncer's Association of Meghalaya under the aegis of the People's Federation of Armwrestling (PAFI) in collaboration with the Department of Sports and Youth Affairs of Meghalaya.
The event featured five weight categories for men and women respectively. It also featured two categories for differently-abled men and women. There was also a standing and seating category for men and women in the differently-abled category. Meghalaya's Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma attended the event and saw the final matches in both men and women's category and awarded prizes to the winners.
In the Women's category, Haryana's Yogesh Choudhary came in first, while Manipur's Soram Rani Devi and Meghalaya's Ribasuk Lyngdoh stood second and third respectively. Meanwhile, in Men's category, Assam's Deepankar Mech stood first, while Meghalaya's Jackson Lyngdoh and Alexion Roy Mylliem Umlong came in at second and third position respectively.
In the para-athlete Men's category, Hubert Lyngdoh Nonglait, Graham Jones Kharnarbi and Nangsan Kumar K. Warjri stood first, second and third in the right-hand (sitting), while in the para-athlete Women's category, Amabilis Mulieh stood first and Iaisahlang Mawlong came second in the right-hand standing category.
Preeti Jhangiani, President of the People's Armwrestling Federation India (PAFI), expressed her pride on success of the event. She said, "It was an eye opener to be at the Shillong Armfight 2023. The talent and potential for Meghalaya in armwrestling is tremendous! Already many players from Meghalaya have brought honour to the country and have won medals at the World championships in Almaty Kazakhstan as well as the recently held Asian Cup in Smarkhand. Mr. Junestar Kharbuli, President of the Meghalaya Armwrestling Association has worked for the development of Armwrestling and his experience has paid off well in this event. It was an absolute honour meeting Hon. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, a multi-talented personality himself. It is commendable the way he is supporting Armwrestling in Meghalaya. As the president of PAFI, I would like to thank him for his support."
Speaking at the occasion, Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma said, "Our government has always supported athletes. In the last five years, many programs and championships have been organised. We are promoting sports amongst the youth because we strongly believe that sports is an area that should be promoted and I am very happy to see that Armwrestling is also on the map. I hope that we will see such programs continuing in our state in the future. I believe Armwrestling is one area where our youngsters can definitely shine and therefore when the proposal came from Junestar (President of Meghalaya Armwrestling Association), we gave support from the sports department and the Chief Minister's fund and I am happy that this program is went so well. I want to thank Preeti and Parvin for taking their time out to come here as it motivates our athletes."
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