Dibrugarh, Sept. 6: A young arm-wrestler from Dibrugarh, Monoj Debnath, is going to feature in the 38th World Arm-Wrestling Championship at Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria from October 1 to 10.

He won a gold medal in the 55kg event in the recent 40th National Arm-Wrestling Championship in Nagpur to qualify to represent the nation. In 2015, he bagged a silver medal in the second Indo-Pak Arm Wrestling Championship in Pakistan's Lahore and also secured 10th place in the 37th World Arm-Wrestling Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Manoj is the son of Babul and Sabita Debnath of Lachit Nagar area here. He is pursuing MBA at GIT Institute of Management Studies and Research, Bangalore.

His father was a martial arts coach who inspired him to choose a career in sports.

"Before participating in the 37th World Arm-Wrestling Championship at Kuala Lumpur, I had gone to then Union sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal for help. He promised me help but I did not get any," said Monoj.

This time he is going to another international event and needs help from the government. "I am practising five to six hours a day and working out in the gym. I will give my hundred per cent to win gold," he said.

The game requires high technical skill, apart from muscular strength, he added.

His training regimen includes workouts with dumbbells, rope-climbing, push-ups and pull-ups, and finger exercises, besides an ingenious drill of pulling rubber tubes with bare hands to strengthen his arms. He rued that Dibrugarh is one of the oldest cities in Assam but lacks proper sports infrastructure.

In other countries, arm-wrestling is a popular sport but in India, people play it only to show strength.

"In India, cricket has been given priority and the other sports have taken a back seat, as reflected in the recent Rio Olympics where India won only two medals. Time has come to change the outlook of the people and give equal priority to all sports," said Monoj.

"When I was in college, the love for arm-wrestling was automatically injected into my blood and after winning the college championship, I decided to take further training," he said.

In 2014, he bagged a bronze medal in the National Arm-Wrestling Championship at Agra and then a gold medal in the 55kg event in the All-Assam State Arm-Wrestling Championship in 2015 in Guwahati.

"I hail from a middle class family and it is very difficult for us to go abroad to participate in a mega event because of limited income. Earlier, I got help from the Arm-Wrestling Federation of India but now it is not in a position to help me. I am desperate because I am pretty confident that I can bring a medal for Assam. I request the Assam government to provide financial aid," he said.