On your marks, get set, arm wrestle!
Saturday, July 10 the Buggy Armwrestling Club hosted an amateur tournament in town. Dalibor Bagaric, who is the president of the club, hoped to bring awareness to the sport and to get more people involved through the tournament. Bagaric and his son and daughter are certified arm wrestling referees through the Canadian association. When hosting amateur events they take extra care for safety.
“We don’t want anyone to hurt themselves so we will show them the proper way to do it and the safe way,” says Bagaric.
Bagaric is originally from Croatia and moved to Canada in 2013. In Croatia, Bagaric was involved in martial arts and once he moved here he was looking for another similar sport to get involved in, this is when he discovered arm wrestling. The Buggy Armwrestling Club began five years ago in Drayton Valley but unfortunately Bagaric and his family ended up moving away for three years. They have since returned and are ready to bring the sport back.
Buggy Armwrestling Club is a member of a larger league called Stronghold Arm Wrestling out of Thorsby, which is the only league within Alberta. The league and club have many tournaments including their main event coming up in August which will include belts for the champions.
Bagaric is hoping the sport of arm wrestling will catch on in Drayton Valley and this was the main inspiration for hosting last weekend’s event.
“My wish is to get people from here to learn more about arm wrestling because this is our hometown,” says Bagaric. The event was originally set to take place in the White Bull parking lot but unfortunately had to be moved last minute to the legion as a result of high winds. People showed up from across the province including Calgary, Lethbridge, Airdrie, Red Deer and Edmonton. There were around 30 competitors and 50 spectators. Bagaric says numbers of attendees were reduced due to weather conditions. At the end of the day Jeremy Estey from the Lethbridge arm wrestling club took first place for left and right arm in the lightweight and mid weight category and Shawn Crowthers out of Red Deer took first place for left and right arm in the heavyweight category.
Bagaric hopes to grow the club and is constantly in search of sponsors to help with event locations. If you would like more information on the club you can find them on Facebook.
