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Article: Turks show thirst for camel wrestling
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 21, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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SELCUK, Turkey When Coral and Black Lightning entered the ring
once used by Roman gladiators, the camel wrestling fans went wild:
there was no doubt that each contestant was two tons of trouble.
The spectators have a big thirst for the bizarre sport pitting
the desert beasts of burden against each other in a series of
tournaments that run from November - the start of the camels' mating
season - to mid-March.
But the competition still faces its biggest hump: a lack of
contestants.
Last Sunday's match at the sixth annual Selcuk Camel Wrestling
Festival - the biggest of the tournaments - drew 25,000 Turks and
foreigners to the stadium of the ancient Ephesus, a major Greco-Roman
city of ...