BLACKBURN underlined its place as one of the main centres for Kabaddi in this country when thousands of fans flocked to Witton Park for the annual tournament.

And while it didn't turn out to be a winning day for Blackburn an Accrington dumb-bell lifting team walked off with the honours.

Fans of the ancient 'tag' game of Kabaddi came from as far as London to watch a Blackburn Select try and defend their title against a Manchester Select team.

And although Blackburn could call on the 'Beckham of Kabaddi', Pakistan's Iftikhar Ahmed they could not prevent Manchester from winning 20-15 and taking the £800 prize money and two gold rings for the player of the tournament.

Each side consisted of 10 players -- five raiders and five defenders -- and as well as Iftikhar, Blackburn called on players from as far as Leeds and Bradford.

Points were awarded to players each time they had successfully completed a raid.

The Blackburn team also included local man Imran Ahmed who was in the squad that won the competition last year.

Mohammed Younis, from the Blackburn Kabaddi Association, helped co-ordinate the event Zamir Khan and Jangeer Mughal.

He said: "Kabaddi has a long tradition in Blackburn as we were the first to bring the sport to this country. We have been holding these events for more than 30 years and they get more and more popular.

"It is a very physical sport so it is a celebration of the strength and stamina of the sportsmen who take part."

The Kabaddi competition was the showcase to the day but the dumb-bell lifting event proved to be a worthy curtain raiser.

For it was the Accrington Hurricane team who thrilled the crowd with a show of pure strength.

Sajad Hussain and Chaudery Farooq tied for the heavyweight title when the pair both lifted 78kg to claim the British Asian championship title.

New-comer Kuram Jamil proved he was something of a natural when nobody could better his 73kg to win the middleweight title.

And the Accrington team completed a clean sweep when 14-year-old Asad Khalil lifted 52kg to win the junior title.

The team were coached to success by Arshid Iqbal, Mohammed Iqbal and Chaudrey Zafar.