Nagaland Wrestling Association felicitates international medal winners

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 27 (EMN): The Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA) felicitated Kedouvilie Zumu and Nlumrai, who won bronze medals at the 6th International Sports Festival – Belt Wrestling Championship, Pearl of Kyrgyzstan 2022 at Chon-sary-oi, Kyrgyzstan.

A felicitation programme was held in their honour at Nagaland Olympic Association (NOA) building in Kohima on Monday.

Nagaland’s Director General of Police (DGP) T John Longkumer, attended the occasion and hailed the NWA for building the foundation, providing the way and the road map for the wrestlers through their support and platform to the youngsters.

He stated that wrestling is a traditional sport especially for the Tenyimis, a heritage of the sporting past and appreciated the NWA for making it more inclusive and opening doors even for other tribes.

Towards this, he remarked, “This is how unity happens, by making your traditional sports, your heritage and sharing with the rest of Nagaland”.

The DGP also appreciated the support of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is the president of NOA, the secretary general, Abu Metha and others for being the driving force in taking sports in the state forward.

Sports battalion draft finalisation before August 15

Meanwhile, the DGP, pointing out that the sports battalion of the police happens to be the first of its kind in the country and informed that it is taking some time to formulate the scheme/concept on how to make it into a reality.

A committee was formed and has already submitted its first draft report, he added.

Longkumer exuded hope that before August 15, the draft would be approved so as to provide avenues to the sports persons.

The DGP congratulated the medal winners — Kedouvilie Zumu and Nlumrai — who is also a personnel of the DGP sport’s team — for their achievements and bringing laurels to the state and to the Police department in particular.

Further, he also advised the sports persons to be disciplined and consistent.

In his address, NWA President, Dr. Hiabe Zeliang congratulated the two medal winners for the achievement in making the state proud and the country in general. He added that the NWA has also received the congratulatory note from the All India Traditional Wrestling and Pankration Federation (AITPF).

He informed that besides the Wokha District Wrestling Association being formed and affiliated to the NWA, it had also received from the Ao Senden, authorising wrestlers to participate at the state level wrestling competition.

Zeliang exuded hope that the united world wrestling will be successful in making wrestling as a medal event in the Olympic competition at the earliest, wherein he maintained that it would have a wide scope for the Nagas.

The president, meanwhile, appealed to the DGP to honour the achievement of the two wrestlers by considering an out of turn promotion so as to encourage them to perform better and inspire others. Further, he also urged the DGP to consider the application of the renowned wrestlers who had applied for posts in the Police department.

A brief account of the championship was presented by Kedouvilie Zumu. He informed that 33 countries took part in the 6th International Sports Festival in 30 different sports, wherein judo and belt wrestling were the main events.

He maintained that Nlumrai participated in the 80 Kg category, while he participated in the 80+ Kg category winning a bronze medal each.