NEW DELHI (Gurgaon): The K7 Stage Up qualifiers for Kabaddi, which started from 22 July, concluded on 7 August with NK Kabaddi Academy emerging victors of the tournament by beating Parveen & Jasvir Kabaddi Academy.
The event took place at the Future Fighters Kabaddi Academy owned by former Indian captain Anup Kumar, who also lead U Mumba and Jaipur Pink Panthers and coached Puneri Paltan in Pro Kabaddi League.
Being the second-largest Kabaddi event in the country, the tournament marks the resumption of live Kabaddi after the hiatus of the pandemic-induced lockdown.
More than 140+ players, 20+ coaches & managers from across 50+ villages and towns of Haryana participated in the event. The 10 participating teams went through a grueling qualifying event in early March. The top 6 teams progressed to the Super 6 at K7 Stage Up which are NK Academy, Parveen & Jasvir Kabaddi Academy, Bhaini School, Amit Ashok Academy, Narwal Kabaddi & Sports Academy, and Deepak Niwas Hooda Foundation.
Says Kabaddi Adda co-founder, Suhail Chandhok: “We’ve received an amazing response from the kabaddi community, players and fans alike. We’re glad that we had the chance to bring such an amazing opportunity for budding Kabaddi athletes after the lockdown and we plan to do much more going ahead.”
The event was attended by known dignitaries of the Kabaddi ecosystem including, Indian national captain Deepak Niwas Hooda, Amit Hooda, Pardeep Narwal, Anup Kumar, renowned coaches like Rambir Singh Khokhar (Dronacharya Awardee), Sanjeev Baliyan (Jaipur Pink Panthers, Former U Mumba), Randhir Singh Sehrawat (Bengaluru Bulls, Arjuna Awardee) and a contingent from Amateur Kabaddi Association Haryana.
Kabaddi Adda, the organizers of the event, has announced that its platform has seen exponential growth in numbers recently. The platform has seen nearly 1.2 million views since 21st July, it has been able to reach out to a much bigger demographic. More than 90% of the 41k users who have visited Kabaddi Adda in the last couple of weeks have been new users. The tournament had an average viewership of 19 million so far with 14 million of them watching it on FanCode.
Kabaddi Adda aims to rejuvenate the Kabaddi ecosystem after the pause from the lockdown. Before this tournament, the company also kickstarted a mental health campaign addressing the mental health issues of young, aspiring athletes, which joined in noted names from the ecosystem alongside former Indian captain Ajay Thakur.
