The long-awaited meeting of mas-wrestlers of the continent will take place in Sao Paulo at the Arnold Classic

The promoter of the event is the company Savaget & Excalibur Promoções. The festival will host the largest fitness fair in Latin America. Within three days, competitions will be held in 30 sports, including para-sports, judo, karate, kickboxing, arm wrestling, mas-wrestling, MMA, powerlifting, workout, chess, bodybuilding and others. Bodybuilding and strongman competitions will take place on Saturday evening in the presence of the legend himself.

It should be recalled that the world-famous Arnold Classic sports festival was first held in 1989. With the rapid growth in popularity and the inclusion of an increasing number of power sports in the program of the now multi-sport event Arnold Sport Festival began to be held around the world.

International mas-wrestling tournaments as part of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Festival have been held in the USA since 2014. This year in Columbus, USA, it was held for the eighth time and gathered mas-wrestlers of Benin, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and several states of America itself on March 3-6. International mas-wrestling meetings within Arnold Australia took place in Melbourne for two years in a row. Unfortunately, the pilot tournament planned last year in the UK did not take place due to covid restrictions. In Brazil - held three times: in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao Paulo.

This year, fr om April 29 to May 1, an open continental mas-wrestling tournament - 2022 will be organized in Sao Paulo. Venue: Pavilhão Verde – Expo Center Norte - Green Pavilion – Expocentre Norte. Organizers: Mas-Wrestling Confederation of Brazil (responsible – President Vilmar Oliveira) and the International Mas-Wrestling Federation.

Program:

April 28 – arrival day;

April 29 – registration and admission of competitors;

April 30 – competition day;

May 1 – master classes.

On the eve of the mas-wrestling competitions, I would like to recall the history of the formation of our sport in South America..

Summer of 2012. A man of short stature with a bright southern appearance arrived in Yakutsk as part of a delegation of mas-wrestlers of the world. He spoke Portuguese, which was unfamiliar to everyone, but he quickly learned some popular Yakut phrases and thereby endeared himself to the locals. The people, of course, were surprised by the guest from afar. How did he come to us, to the North? They thought that he had come for the exotic, would stay and forget. But no.

Impressed by what he saw in Yakutia, he enthusiastically began to promote mas-wrestling throughout the South American continent. First of all, in your own country.

Brazil is a vast and mysterious country. It ranks fifth in the world in terms of territory – it is bigger than Australia, almost three times bigger than Yakutia. Sixth place in terms of population - 210 million people. The largest river in the world, the Amazon, crosses the entire country and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The vast jungle surrounding the Amazon is called the "lungs of the planet". Brazil is famous for its football, beaches and carnival in Rio. The country is developing rapidly. The Brazilian Embraer aircraft brand is known all over the world.

Brazil is a country of immigrants, as is the USA. The history of Brazil has several waves of immigration: from Portuguese to Germans, Dutch and Japanese. Due to these processes, the country is extremely diverse in terms of population. In the central and coastal equatorial states, the population with African roots prevails, in the eastern states and along the shores of the Amazon, the population is mixed with the local Tupi-Guarani Indian tribes.

Mas-wrestling took its first steps in the southern states. It is mainly inhabited by Brazilians with Italian and German roots and wh ere the Gaucho culture reigns (in the Portuguese pronunciation of gaucho). Senor Vilmar Oliveira began to promote mas-wrestling in the city of Caxias do sul, in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Here, in the sports club "Academy of Vilmar Oliveira", the South American history of mas-wrestling originates.

Vilmar is fr om a large family. After the loss of his father, the family was in poverty, and our hero from a young age had to earn extra money on the street as a shoe cleaner. But with all this unfavorable context, he had a dream to become famous all over the world and travel a lot. Sports helped to realize these plans.

Vilmar is a versatile athlete - he was engaged in running, boxing, parachuting. But most of all he gravitated to power sports and therefore gradually came to powerlifting, in which he performed and performs for many years. He has won a huge number of medals at various tournaments. Like all Brazilians, Vilmar is very musical and artistic, masterfully plays the Brazilian accordion "safona". Vilmar played in musical groups, performed with a military orchestra. Vilmar even starred in a feature film about the history of Gaushu.

Currently, Vilmar is a frequent guest of various TV channels as a promoter of a healthy lifestyle and a new sport for Brazil - mas-wrestling.

In a fairly short period of time, Vilmar has formed a strong Brazilian team that competes successfully at the world level.  He has become a true missionary of mas-wrestling - he makes presentations and lectures at schools, universities, military units, takes part in city sports festivals, attracts more and more new countries of the continent to the world of mas-wrestling.

Mas-wrestling is popular in Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador are on the way. But even in the biggest Brazil there is enough work. He intends to cover all 27 states. This year, Vilmar plans to hold competitions in almost half of the country - in 12 states. The largest of them will be the continental championship in Chile. He will also help to hold championships in Argentina and Bolivia.

Of course, the most striking event of the year will be the International Mas-wrestling Tournament at the Arnold South America Sports Festival, which will be held recently in one of the largest cities in the world, Sao Paulo. Follow our news on the website of the International Mas-Wrestling Federation.

The powerlifting star Mirela Cruz From the city of New Venice, Espiritu Santo State, will decorate the tournament with her participation. She is a 3-time world champion in deadlift (WABDL), holder of two Pan-American records, 3-time Brazilian mas-wrestling champion, bronze medalist in Strongwoman at the Arnold Classic.

Of course, our long–awaited friends Tiago dos Santos, Jonathan William, Ricardo Nort and the Chilean giant Angulo Jaime Manuel Luis, president of the national Mas Wrestling Federation, will not miss the long-awaited festival. The guys came from Pakistan, wh ere the next national championship was recently held, which gathered about 300 participants. Helmsman Nawab Furkan Khan has already reported his arrival in Sao Paulo.

Follow the news on the website of the International Mas-Wrestling Federation. 

Lena Tomskaya, Sao Paulo, Brazil.