The Pro Panja League organised its recent event at the Chandigarh University in collaboration with the Sood Classic World Strongman Games. One of the top athletes to take part there was Shiv Kaushik.
He took part in this tournament as well and was placed in the third position in the 75 kg category. He recently appeared in the live session with the Pro Panja League’s Abhishek Singh, where he talked about his experience pulling under the running foul rule and also his rivalry against Satnam Singh.
How did you like the ambience of the venue?
“The ambiance was great. This is the first time I visited Chandigarh. The place was just how I had expected. The location, the people… The people were following the traffic rules and then we came to Chandigarh University. The management was good. The place was also very clean. The way Gwalior was a great spot, Chandigarh University was also a fine place for the event.”
We brought some changes to the event. The rule of Running Foul was introduced. We introduced it on a trial basis but it is likely to be a permanent rule in Pro Panja League. What are your thoughts on the concept?
“The concept is seemingly complex to the athletes. I’ve got some reviews from them. It looked complex to me as well at the onset. Then I learned about the rule. But I feel that in the fixture of 20 or 25 athletes, this rule could drag the match for a long time. I believe that the rule is a bit complex that the referees could get confused. Suppose a player gets fouled, pins his opponent, he thinks he won the match but that will not be the case. It will be followed by a rematch. So he athlete might be like ‘if it was a foul then why didn’t you stop the match.’ So the energy is exhausted in trying to win the match. That’s the thing. Apart from this, a supplementary thing could have been what we know about Bubble rule, where if the elbow is lifted a bit, it will not be considered a foul. But if it’s raised for about 1cm, it can be considered a foul. That could be a good idea. So the reviews I have gotten, 10 out of 10 have been negative reviews. Fairly speaking, the athletes prefer the old rule.”
You had a good match with Satnam and you even pinned him. What was your thought process heading into the match, given that he has defeated you several times?
“I was injured in the second match. So I lost the control of the match. During the first match, I had the only thing in my mind which was Hanuman Chalisa. I was chanting the hymn in my mind as I wanted the power to defeat him and I managed to pin him. When the first bout to Suraj Salotra, I was in pain due to the golfers elbow. From there I couldn’t move forward. Then it was a running foul, I couldn’t pin him and lost the match.”
