Raphael Warjri

Shillong Armfight 2023 concluded today, December 21, 2023, featuring Bollywood celebrities Preeti Jhangiani and Parvin Dabas as special guests. The All India championship, orchestrated by the Bouncers Association of Meghalaya and The Wrestling Society with backing from the Department of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Meghalaya, saw the engagement of 1000 wrestlers. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma graced the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest. In his address, Sangma said 'Weeks before that we had all India National Boxing Championship out here in Shillong and a few months before that we had the all India table tennis championship in Shillong so you're seeing one by one we are here there to promote our youth because we strongly feel that Sports is an area which should be promoted and I'm very happy to see that arm wrestling is also now on the map and I hope that in the future also we will see this programs continuing in our state on a lighter note let me also share with you that there was a time when I was in St Edmund School in class 6 and 7even and 8 and we used to do arm wrestling all the time and uh you know we used to always compete and it was kind of a cultural thing that happened in the schools and I'm sure most of our Shillong students whether girls or boys I'm sure that you have experienced and gone through that phase uh to the extent let me share this with you and this again is not trying to bring down 

anybody to the extent that I remember that after I started practicing arm wrestling here of course in in a very amateur way and I was always beaten by everybody else to be frank I never could make it but then I went to Delhi after that and uh in class ten I was in Delhi and you won't believe it so when I reached Delhi I beat everybody is in school in Delhi so again this is not about Northeast versus North India uh or Central India but I'm just telling you the experience that I had' he concluded.