Silver medal winner wrestler Inam Butt returns home

LAHORE, May 13 (APP):Country’s ace wrestler, Inam Butt, returned home here on Monday after winning a silver medal in Beach Wrestling World Series in Rio de Janeiro.
Inam was given a warm welcome on his arrival at Allama Iqbal International Airport where the officials of Pakistan Wrestling Federation, a large number of fans, relatives and friends received him and profusely garlanded him.
Inam, who was unbeaten en route to the final, had to content with a silver medal after going down 2-0 in the final against Dato Marsagishvili of Georgia due to a bad decision by the referee. He had earlier defeated Grigorios Kriaridis in the semifinal.
Inam told APP that he was deprived of a certain gold medal because of a wrong decision of a referee which went against him. “I was shocked to know the decision of the referee and I cannot imagine that this can happen in a gold fight,” he said.
He said final was a challenging bout as he was competing against Olympic Bronze medalist player. “I was doing good in the fight against him but all of sudden one decision went wrong against me and shattered my dreams to win the gold,” said country’s top notch wrestler and winner of a number of titles.
With his silver medal feat, Inam has also qualified for the World Beach Games to be held in October this year in San Diego, America.
Inam said he was delighted to win the silver medal to made his country proud. “Whereever I play it is always my utmost endeavour to win a medal to keep my country’s flag high,” he added.
He said his victory was due to the blessings of Allah Almighty and the prayers of the nation. He named after his success to the people of Pakistan who are always supportive whenever he enters the arena.
Inam expressed his gratitude to the Sports Board Punjab and Punjab Sports Minister, Rai Taimur Bhatti for extending financial support to him to ensure his participation in the mega event.
“Without their patronage it was not possible to feature in the competition and to win a medal,” he asserted. He said he will start his training and preparations for the World Beach Games as he is the only Pakistani to qualify for such a mega wrestling event being played in the USA.