Azerbaijan to host Alpagut Championship
By Laman Ismayilova
The Shagan Olympic Complex will host the third National Alpagut Championship on March 11, Trend Life reported.
The tournament aims at promoting and developing the ancient sport of alpagut in Azerbaijan and healthy lifestyle.
Alpagut is a martial art with its canons, traditions and philosophy. The word Alpagut consists of two words- Alp which means ‘warrior’ and kulsal that means ‘saint’. These are saint soldiers who battled for the sake of national and universal ideals.
Preserving its uniqueness Alpagut could retain its relevance nowadays. A lot of alpagut sports schools were opened in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Australia, Iran, USA, Canada, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The ancient sport which combines mixed Turkic martial arts consists of three systems: Aypara, Batur, and Jima.
The first one is similar to full contact karate, but there are also grabs and throws. The Batur system is similar to the fighting. However, it is not allowed to fight on the ground more than 20 seconds.
The Jaimas system is similar with K1 and Thaiboxing.
The fighting usually takes place in the wolf and falcon circle. Wolf and falcon circles are the totem that belongs to the Turkic world. The fighting lasts 9 minutes.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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