Mongolia's Bituun Wrestling Criticized

On bituun (the eve of the Lunar New Year) Mongolia has its traditional national wrestling competition. 43 years ago, in 1963 Tsagaan Sar was named as Negdelchdiin Bayar (Festival of the Collective) and 43 wrestlers participated.
But, the public has criticized this New Year’s wrestling of B.Bat-Erdene, G.Usukhbayar and D.Sumyabazar. B.Bat-Erdene won in this competition and runner up was D.Sumyabazar. B.Bat-Erdene is a veteran and the most succesful wrestler in Mongolia, but since 2004 also Mongolian parliament member for the MPRP. It was expected that young powerful wrestlers G.Usukhbayar and D.Sumyabazar would win the competition, but to everybody's surprise the old Bat-Erdene won the games. according to reporters not in convincing way.

Now the media speculate on the competition being a set-up and that the competition was used for political purposes

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