The second largest annual traditional wrestling competition for this year’s Tsagaan Sar fest was held on February 7 at the Wrestling Palace. 256 top wrestlers from all over Mongolia participated in the tournament. More specifically, there was 1 state champion, 2 state lion title holders, 1 state garuda title holder, 7 state elephant title holders, 9 state hawk title holder and 45 state falcon title holders at the competition.

Besides the high ranking wrestlers there were 191 young wrestlers of lower rankings. Unfortunately favored wrestlers such as the legendary champion B.Bat-Erdene, state champion G.Osokhbayar and state garuda title holder B.Gantogtokh were not in the ring, but were present to watch the tournament. Everything went according to the fans’ expectations, but in the 5th round, things suddenly went wrong for Sumyabazar’s fans. His opponent, a young wrestler named Sh.Jargalsaikhan, managed to win over the state champion, disappointing Sumyabazar’s fans. He seemed to have trained intensely for the tournament, but he was tired after a few minutes of nonstop wrestling. So Sumyabazar had no other choice than to watch the rest of the tournament. With Sumyabazar out of the way, there was one thing less to worry about.

In the seventh round of the tournament, Sh.Jargalsaikhan who won over the state champion, also managed to win over the champion of the last Naadam wrestling tournament, state lion title holder Kh.Monkhbaatar. In the semi finals, state garuda title holder, I.Dorjsambuu, faced state falcon title holder, Do.Gankhuyag and Sh.Jargalsaikhan faced state falcon title holder, Du.Batbayar. From the semi finals Dorjsambuu and Batbayar managed to advance to the finals.

In the finals, Dorjsambuu won over the young falcon title holder and made his supporters happy. Even if Jargalsaikhan did not win the tournament he was clearly the best performer during the competition. Many wrestling fans wished him good luck for the next Naadam festival where he can gain state titles. But fans and specialists were critical about the performance of the higher ranked wrestlers as many of them were defeated in the quarter finals. This tournament surely showed the higher ranking wrestlers that they should train more intensely for the tournament or else younger wrestlers will dominate them.

The UB post

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