VALVERDE, Spain (Reuters) – 13-year-old Cheik Ndaa, a Senegalese migrant, won his first Lucha Canaria wrestling tournament in Spain’s Canary Islands to the cheers of the crowd.
Ndaa arrived on a wooden fishing boat in July and has quickly picked up the sport due to its similarity with a form of wrestling he practiced in his birthplace Dakar.
“Wrestling has been my passion since I lived in Senegal.. it is in my heart,” Ndaa said.
He currently attends a local school and trains twice a week with 11 other migrants at a club on El Hierro, the archipelago’s smallest island.
Ndaa’s coach, Beneino Machin, believes that Ndaa’s talent for fighting could help him to a better life in Spain. Machin, a veteran wrestler, expressed his special affection for migrant wrestlers and recognizes the sacrifices they have made.
Canarian wrestling is practiced in a sand circle and wrestlers must make their opponents touch the sand with any part of their bodies except their feet.
Ndaa arrived at the port of La Restinga following a journey in which many died. He did not speak Spanish and was one of 5,000 unaccompanied minors among a record 34,000 African migrants to arrive on the archipelago this year.
Concerned about the decline in local interest in Lucha Canaria, Eladio Merida, a cattle farmer on the island, asked authorities for permission to invite migrant minors to Concepcion Wrestling Club training sessions.
Antonio Arancibia, coordinator of the minors’ center, noted that those who do Canarian wrestling stand a better chance of being among the 50 minors who can be accommodated on the island.
Merida is working with other employers to find jobs for the minors once they turn 18 in fishing, agriculture, and tourism. Despite the challenges, Ndaa is eager to stay and fulfill his dream of becoming a wrestling champion.
(Reporting by Corina Pons, Horaci Garcia and Borja Suarez; Editing by Charlie Devereux and Ed Osmond)
