UDHAMPUR: Haryana wrestler Som Bir clinched the Eighth Annual Battal Ballian Kesari Dangal title defeating Abdul Gani of Mallerkotla in Punjab in the main bout that took place at Battal in block and Tehsil Udhampur.
Witnessed by a huge gathering of people from surrounding villages, this famous Dangal of district Udhampur was organised by Pir Baba Dangal Committee Battal Ballian in collaboration with J and K Indian Style Wrestling Association under the overall supervision of President of the Association, Shiv Kumar Sharma and President of the Dangal Committee, Deep Singh (Pinku).
In all, 62 bouts took place in this day-long Dangal incurring an expenditure of nearly Rs 3 lakh. Former Minister and MLA, Pawan Kumar Gupta was Chief Guest who distributed cash prizes among the wrestlers. Joint Secretary of J and K State Sports Council, Shiv Kumar Sharma presided over. Retired police officer, Prithvi Raj Sharma, Colonel Balwant Singh, Ram Paul Sharma and Raj Kumar Buccha were Guests of the Honour. Prominent among others present included Parsotam Singh, Sarpanch Rehmat Ali, Naresh Kumar (Pappu Lakri), Master Munna Khan, SHO O.P Chib, Om Parkash Verma and Satish Kumar. Earlier, the main bout winner, Som Bir was given away a cash prize of Rs 51,000 while runners-up, Abdul Gani was presented with Rs 30,000 prize. Members and technical officials who helped for conduct of this mega event included Deep Singh (Pinku), Sukhdev Singh, Dhiyan Singh, Master Munna Khan, Munshi Ram Sharma, Panch Puran Chand Sharma, Sham Singh, Gulshad Master, Pankaj Singh, Jagdev Singh, Sikander Singh,Vijay Singh (Biju), Sat Paul, Deepak Wazir, Om Parkash Verma, Raj Singh, Tulinder Kumar, Naresh Kumar (Pappu Lakri) and Murli Dhar (Munna).
Other Results: Major of Ludhiana beat Nisar of Doda; Farooq of Sarore defeated Gurmail of BSF; Gopi of Ludhiana outplayed Bhupinder of Ajnala; Kaka of RS Pura beat Bablu of Delhi; Ajay Sharma of Udhampur trounced Rashpaul of Ajnala; Kalu of Bishnah defeated Sagar of Delhi; Bobari of Sarore beat Bhollu of Rohtak; Shootu of RS Pura trounced Dheeraj of UP; Akram of Jammu outplayed Babu of Ramnagar; Babba of Domana beat Ajay of Rohtak and Murad Ali of Domana defeated Chaman of Amritsar. Bouts played between Amir Khan of Nargada and Sonu of Rohtak and Lalu of Bajrangi Akhara Jammu and Binda of Kapurthalla ended in a draw.