By Sulayman Bah & Abdoulie Fatty
Manduwar left a dozen wrestling mad-fans questioning his game tactic causing him to lose his rematch fight with Leket Bu Barra.
Held at the Independence Stadium on Sunday evening, the duel lasted twenty-minutes, arguably the two wrestlers’ longest fight in the arena.
The hype in the build-up to the clash was immense as Manduwar sought to avenge his defeat to Leket five years ago.
For the man from Barra –Leket -, described as the Gambian arena’s king, it was more a case of ascertaining his dominance over an adversary viewed as threat to his impeccable unbeaten record.
A rambunctious moment for Gambia wrestling, thousands braved the cold Sunday night to trip to the Bakau stadium.
The two went into hand swinging at whistle of start by the arbiter with both exercising circumspection.
Manduwar made the first move –a failed attempt at a blow to the face which Leket dodged.
Leket surged forward to get a grip but his opponent withdrew opting for hit-and-run tactic, lunching blows and retreating.
A similar pattern followed going into the tenth minute with fans by now itching impatiently at Manduwar’s uncharacteristic demeanour to run around the arena.
Leket later got caught out by a Manduwar’s blow and needed medical attention.
Re-start of the duel had the two finally grappling amid successive exchange of blows before Leket appeared to wrestle down Manduwar from outside the sacks as the arbiter ordered for a re-start of proceedings.
Manduwar later incurred three warnings as against Leket’s one, as the club Jeff Jell heavyweight struggled to earn a draw.
His move of running around the surface without keeping still worked against him as the referee declared Leket winner.
In earlier combats, Abo Sarr walked over Chaart while ‘Rambo’ humbled Serrekunda Mbolloh’s ‘Building’ in a nail-biting duel.
