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‘World Tug of War’ draws toughest competitors

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Over a 2 000 participants from 20 countries have descended on Cape Town for the 24th World Tug of War Championships the biannual tournament that pits some of the sport’s toughest competitors against each other.

The sport dates back to ancient times and comprising of 8 members per team and a 35 metre long rope. Athletes have to dig deep to pull the opposing team over a distance of four metres to win.

It is the fifth time the world championships are held in South Africa.

President of the Tug of War Federation of South Africa, Anton Botha said, “In this event there is a total of 89 teams that participate in 18 categories. Unlike rugby or some of the other sports we don’t have a separate championship for ladies and men we have a single world championships where we have all the categories together.”

Botha says Tag Of War is a so called Cinderella sport as it is often neglected. He says they have created a project where clubs adopt schools in their areas in an attempt to expose more young people to the sport.

Women’s Team Captain Leonell Steyn said, “We are aiming for gold and we are hoping we can improve on it and yesterday when we competed in the club championships we got a Broze medal so we are looking forward to improving on that now.”

South Africa’s women’s team is ranked third in the world.

Newcomers to the championship, the Zimbabwean team are literally learning the ropes, overcoming challenges that include pulling on different surfaces.

Team Zimbabwe’s coach Mthandazo Nsingo said, “It’s our first time to participate in such an event but so far we are learning, and taking it as a learning curve. But I think we have performed well. We have managed to draw with one of the teams and we are not far away.”

The tournament kicked off on Wednesday with teams from 92 clubs across the world participating in the various weight categories.

 

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