LAHORE, Feb 11: Thirty-three wrestlers appeared on the first day of the two-day national wrestling trials which started at the National Sports Training and Coaching Centre on Saturday to finalize a seven-member team for the Takhti Cup to be held in Tehran, Iran from Feb 22 to 24.

The newly elected secretary Pakistan Wrestling Federation, (PWF) Chaudhary Mohammad Asghar said that the trials were organized on the advice of new Iranian coach Ghulam Raza Moazzam, as mostly promising youngsters were shown to the coach to pick talented grapplers for future assignments.

However, he said that the most of the wrestlers belong to departments as the provincial bodies got less time to appear with full strength.

The secretary pointed out that the coach was provided by the Pakistan Sports Board for the 10th South Asian Games to be held in Sri Lanka from Aug 17 to 27.

The coach reached Lahore only three days before and asked for trials.

Before the South Asian Games, the secretary said the PWF had three more international events besides the Takhti Cup.

Pakistan have to compete in the Asian Championship to be held in Kazakhstan from April 4 to 9, Commonwealth Championship from June 25 to 27 (venue to be decided) and Asian Junior Championship in Abu Dhabi from Aug 17 to 20.

He said that the PWF would chalk out a comprehensive programme to hold indigenous wrestling throughout the country to promote the game and to generate funds.