Get Ready for the Third All India Inter-Varsity Gatka Tournament !

Punjabi University Patiala will host third all India Inter-University Gatka (Men & Women) prize money tournament-2015 from March 25 to March 27 at university campus in which more than two dozen university Gatka teams would vie for championship. Disclosing this here today, Director Sports of Punjabi University. Dr. Raj Kumar Sharma said the team winners would be awarded cash prizes from Rs 31,000, Rs 21,000 and Rs 11,000 respectively for their three top positions.

He informed that former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Secretary General SAD, also president of World Gatka Federation, would inaugurate the tournament on March 25. Mr SP Singh Oberoi president Asian Gatka Federation and Mr Harcharan Singh Bhullar president Gatka Federation of India would also grace the occasion as guests of honour.

He further added that Dr Jaspal Singh Vice Chancellor Punjabi University would preside over the prize distribution ceremony on March 27 for which sports department has already made adequate arrangements for successful conduct of this tournament. He added that Dr Jaspal Singh Vice Chancellor was longing earnestly for preservation and promotion of this ancient martial art at national level and Punjabi University has taken initiative to organize all India inter-varsity Gatka competitions with the help of Gatka Federation.

He said that earlier, the Gatka was only the domain of males, now even the females have been outperforming the males by displaying their rare acumen in the Gatka sport. The present martial art form, Gatka, had been acknowledged as a sport and being played in the entire country and diaspora.

It is mentioned here that Gatka is a style of fighting only with sticks between two Gatka players, intended to simulate the sword and focuses on infusing physical, spiritual and mental fitness. No sharp edged weapons are used in the Gatka game and it has become a “cosmopolitan sport”.

~ Source: Gatka Fedration, Punjab