The 2024 Arnold Classic Mas-Wrestling Championship has ended in Columbus

The Arnold Sports Festival is the largest multi-sport festival in the United States. It is traditionally held in Columbus, Ohio, where tens of thousands of athletes from around the world come to participate in more than 80 sports and events. The festival was founded by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Columbus businessman Jim Lorimer in 1989. It is not difficult to consider that this year the festival was held for the 36th time.

The festival boasts one of the most notable events in bodybuilding - the Arnold Classic. In a competition named after bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger. The prize fund for this competition is very significant. For example, in 2025 it will reach half a million dollars just for first place.

The annual fitness and sports competition included many different events that took place at several venues in Ohio over the weekend. Locations included the Columbus Convention Center, Ohio Expo Center, Batelle Grand, and Columbus Athenaeum.

Thanks to the efforts of our colleague, Mr. Odd Haugen, the mas-wrestling competitions has been a regular feature of the world-famous festival since 2014. The exception was only the year 2021 for an objective reason - a pandemic. This year we were allocated a separate room for holding master classes and presentation events. They were competently conducted by an international team led by Odd Haugen and his right-hand man John O'Connor. The training for everyone was conducted by the president of the Canada Mas-Wrestling Association Andrew Bolinger, the international category referee Egor Ermolaev, the master of sports of international class in mas-wrestling Azat Tashtanbekov, the world champion in mas-wrestling Azamat Asanov, Adam Turner and Kylie Mertz from Indiana. At the end of the series of seminars, a tournament was held for men and women with Yakut diamonds. Athletes from the states of New York, Marilyn, North Carolina and Ohio participated in their first new sport.

A special feature of the official sports event mas-wrestling in Columbus is the limited number of participants due to the difficulties of obtaining entry visas. For this reason, the organizers use this resonant platform for the presentation of the sport, for its display to a wide global audience. Live TV interview was done by head of the United World Mas-Wrestling Alliance Odd Haugen about the sport from Yakutia. The demonstration of the sport took place in the format of demonstration performances by Ellya Timofeev, Sargyn Danilova. The referee was Egor Ermolaev, specially arrived from the motherland of the sport, from the largest region of Russia - Yakutia. There were three such broadcasts on different TV channels. This is undoubtedly a big breakthrough. Previously there were only publications in the local press.

This year, Columbus brought together athletes from Kyrgyzstan, Hungary and several US states. The matches were held in four men’s and two women’s weight categories, after which the championship belts in the absolute category were drawn.

The prizes, Yakut diamonds for men and silver jewellery for women, were provided by the World Mas-wrestling Center.

The organizers thank Galina and Ronald Williams from Ohio for their help in translating and for their excellent photography. Thank you for videofilming Panteleymon Martynov from San Francisco.

The results of the 2024 Arnold Classic Mas-wrestling Championship: