AGL 40.06 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.15%)
AIRLINK 130.61 Increased By ▲ 1.08 (0.83%)
BOP 6.82 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (2.1%)
CNERGY 4.62 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.22%)
DCL 9.05 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.23%)
DFML 43.40 Increased By ▲ 1.71 (4.1%)
DGKC 84.24 Increased By ▲ 0.47 (0.56%)
FCCL 33.00 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (0.7%)
FFBL 78.90 Increased By ▲ 3.43 (4.54%)
FFL 11.66 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (1.66%)
HUBC 110.76 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.19%)
HUMNL 14.70 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.96%)
KEL 5.44 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.93%)
KOSM 8.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.19%)
MLCF 39.85 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.15%)
NBP 60.80 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (0.85%)
OGDC 199.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.65 (-0.33%)
PAEL 26.75 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.38%)
PIBTL 7.81 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.96%)
PPL 159.99 Increased By ▲ 2.07 (1.31%)
PRL 26.84 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.41%)
PTC 18.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.05%)
SEARL 83.00 Increased By ▲ 0.56 (0.68%)
TELE 8.25 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.72%)
TOMCL 34.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.03%)
TPLP 9.06 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TREET 17.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.47 (-2.69%)
TRG 60.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.52 (-0.85%)
UNITY 27.56 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.47%)
WTL 1.43 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (3.62%)
BR100 10,550 Increased By 143.3 (1.38%)
BR30 31,988 Increased By 274.2 (0.86%)
KSE100 98,335 Increased By 1006.8 (1.03%)
KSE30 30,582 Increased By 389.1 (1.29%)

Wearing only underpants, Pavel Kalina twists his body up a wooden pole before performing a handstand at the top in the first world championships of an ancient Indian sport. The 55-year-old from the Czech Republic practises Mallakhamb, a gymnastics-like discipline that originated in western India in the 12th century and is often described as "yoga on a pole". "I do it because I'm a crazy man," Kalina tells AFP, struggling to catch his breath after two minutes performing poses on the pillar, which is covered in castor oil to stop friction burns.
"To be honest it is like torture but I have to do it because I need to spend my energy," adds the former gymnast who took up Mallakhamb ten years ago. Kalina was among some 100 competitors from 15 different countries taking part in the Mallakhamb World Championships in Mumbai over the weekend.
The sport, first mentioned in Indian texts in 1135, is popular in western Maharashtra state - of which Mumbai is the capital - but is little known outside India. "Malla means wrestler and khamb means pole," explains Uday Deshpande, the organiser of the event and India's most renowned Mallakhamb practitioner. "The pole is eight and a half feet (2.6 metres) in height. It is smooth, well polished and tapered at the top. Different acrobatic exercises and yogic postures are performed on it.
It "is there in the absence of your partner and you are wrestling against it," he adds. On day one of the event - held in Mumbai's Shivaji Park - men, mostly in swimming trunks, and women, mostly in leotards, wowed a crowd of several hundred with gravity defying moves. Onlookers clapped and cheered as a competitor from Spain stretched out on his front like Superman on the top of the pole, which had a circumference of just 35 centimetres (14 inches).
A participant from England gave a Usain Bolt-like salute from the summit while Kalina sat in a meditative position with the palms of his hands facing skywards. Faezeh Jalali, wearing a headscarf, represented Iran in the rope category which saw participants perform stunts up and down a rope that hung 15 feet in the air. "You feel a real achievement and you build strength and flexibility. It's amazing what the human body can do," Jalali, 39, told AFP. Competitors from France, Germany, Malaysia and Vietnam also took part.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.