LAHORE     -   Pakistan’s ace wrestler Inam Butt returned home here on Monday after winning a silver medal in Beach Wrestling World Series in Rio de Janeiro.

Inam received a warm welcome on his arrival at Allama Iqbal International Airport, where the officials of Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) along with a large number of fans, relatives and friends, received him and profusely garlanded him.

Inam, who was unbeaten enroute to the final, had to content with a silver medal after going down 0-2 in the final against Dato Marsagishvili of Georgia due to a bad decision by the referee. He had earlier defeated Grigorios Kriaridis in the semifinal.

Inam said that he was deprived of a certain gold medal because of a wrong decision of referee, which went against him. “I was shocked to know the decision of the referee and I cannot imagine that this can happen in a gold fight,” he said.

He said final was a challenging bout as he was competing against Olympic bronze medalist player. “I was doing well in the fight against him but all of sudden one decision went wrong against me and shattered my dreams to win the gold,” he said.  With his silver medal feat, Inam has also qualified for the World Beach Games to be held in October this year in San Diego, America. Inam said he was delighted to win the silver medal to make his country proud.

He said he will start his training and preparations for the World Beach Games as he is the only Pakistani to qualify for such a mega wrestling event being played in USA.