World Mas-Wrestling: A start has been made!

This event is included in the list of mandatory events. Unfortunately, few were able to overcome the quarantine barrier. Even traveling within the country itself remains difficult, not to mention the participation of athletes fr om abroad, wh ere the US Consulates have not reopened in most countries.

But in spite of everything, the long-awaited tournament took place. Mas-wrestling international level competition year has started! Referee Junaid Ijaz Chukhdhri and athlete Salman Aqeel Butt, who came from Pakistan, gave the status of the international competition to this tournament.

Many noted that after the trainings held in America by the referee of the international category Egor Ermolaev, the attitude towards Mas-Wrestling competitions among local athletes has changed. Meetings on the platform became much more lively both in the intensity of the fights and in the reaction from the audience.

The day of the competition was very bright and sunny. Odd Haugen made sure that there was a canopy over the platform for comfortable matches. Before the fights, the athletes were assisted by Vitaly Danilov. The event was hosted by John Eccle according to the established tradition. A member of the IMWF Executive Committee Chad Clark came from Virginia especially to work as a referee. Together with a colleague from Pakistan they showed a wonderful example of successful cooperation in the field of sports by the representatives of different countries.

Odd Haugen himself worked as a side referee. He, of course, could calmly sit at the table, watching the process from the sidelines. But this is not included in his personal life program. Mr. Haugen not only worked through the registration, weighing and refereeing at the mas-wrestling competition, the next day he competed on equal terms with the younger participants and overcame almost everyone in various weightlifting disciplines.

A distinctive feature of the competition was the participation of two athletes with lower limb amputation, Bradley Joseph Gutierrez and Chad Macklin. They fought with prosthetics.

Chad Macklin, who fought in the heavyweight category, managed to win all the rivals and became the winner. He impressed everyone with his positivity and active lifestyle.

Earlier, trial competitions were held in different countries among blind and deaf athletes, but amputees are pulling the stick for the first time at such high level.

We can confidently say that the official beginning of the development of Adaptive Mas-Wrestling or maybe Para Mas-Wrestling has been laid. Now it is extremely important to create conditions for high-quality holding of competitions for physically impaired, visually or hearing impaired sportsmen, taking into account their characteristics and to write special mas-wrestling rules. The time has come.

For special achievements and will to win, Chad Macklin, by the decision of two IMWF vice-presidents, will be invited to the presentation of Mas-Wrestling in the UK in early July.

By the way, this athlete has two million views of his Mas-Wrestling fights on one well-known social network. So it is a wonderful coincidence. The best promoter of Mas-Wrestling, perhaps, can not be found.

Athletes from other states arrived at the competition. For example, Odd Haugen's former colleague Jon-Clark Eklund flew in from Austin, Texas. He is going to start mas-wrestling trainings there and has already purchased the inventory for it. He became the first in the tournament in his weight category and, as it seems to us, he received a large enough charge to start his activity.

The matches were watched by numerous friends around the world, for whom was organized a live broadcast on Facebook. The participants themselves were aware and tried as best they could. Here are the results.

Women

up to 70 kg

Gina Benigno - 65,68

Brittany Brazil - 67,65

Melody Schoenfeld - 51,1

over 70 kg

Lindsay Hall - 126,2

Megan Benefield - 89,9

Collean Saenz - 121,95

Men

Up to 90 kg

Matt Scipione - 89,25

Cody Hoffman - 88,35

Shane Steck - 89,2

Up to 105 kg

Jon-Clark Eklund - 102,5

Nicholas Biebel - 100,75

James Deirmendjian 99,2

Over 105 kg

Chad Macklin - 144,75

Morgan Hill - 186,5

Joseph DiCeglie - 124,95

Lee Martin from Mas-Film Studio team has taken the interview especially for the news program of the SAKHA National Broadcasting company, for which we would like to express our special gratitude. This kind of help is always appropriate when there is a language barrier and it is difficult to immediately navigate the questions and answers for Russian interviewer.

It only seems from the side that such events take place on their own, without much effort. But no one sees the “ballerina's bloody toes”. The better a tournament is held, the more sweat is shed in its preparation. This process and the competition itself are always associated with work in different languages. In addition, numerous postponements and cancellations of events complicate life not only for athletes but for organizers firstly. Thanks to the special friendly atmosphere among the mas-wrestlers of the world, we manage to avoid any misunderstandings and disagreements in the preparatory work. The general tone of this phenomenon is set, of course, by our leaders - President Alexander Akimov and vice-presidents, the most influential of whom is Mr Odd Haugen.

On behalf of the International Mas-Wrestling Federation, we express our gratitude to the General Director of the Yakutia Railways company Vasily Shimokhin for supporting the World Mas-Wrestling and for the uniform of all participants and organizers of the past international tournament! A commemorative T-shirt with an exclusive design from American and Russian designers was specially developed for this event.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in this wonderful event. I hope the impressions about it  will remain in our hearts for a long time. See you at the next event! And there will be plenty of them this year!