In mid-March 2025, Armenian arm wrestler Vachagan Hovhannisyan won the prestigious Super Match – World Cup tournament in Italy, taking 1st place in the 75 kg category for both arms.
Thanks to this success, he qualified for the prestigious international East vs West tournament.
After his victory, the athlete reached out to us, requesting help in finding a sponsor to continue competing, as well as for organizing training and tournaments for young arm wrestlers.
The Armenian Ministry of Sports does not provide support to arm wrestlers, citing that the sport is not Olympic.
Following our publication on Telegram, the owner of FC "Urartu," Jevan Cheloyants, contacted the athlete and offered to help cover expenses for training camps, necessary equipment, and flights to competitions.
I want to share great news—thanks to the recent post, a sponsor was found who decided to support me!
"Honestly, I was surprised—it turned out to be the owner of the Urartu football club. He reached out to me personally and offered his support.
I told him how much it costs to prepare and compete, and he helped even more than I expected.
Huge thanks to him for such generous support.
Now I'm trying to recover from my injuries as quickly as possible and perform with dignity—there is very little time left before the competition.
To be honest, I was already thinking of quitting arm wrestling because my arm was in terrible condition. Of course, it's impossible to fully heal in such a short time, but I think I’ll be able to compete properly," Vachagan Hovhannisyan wrote to us.
On April 26, Vachagan Hovhannisyan will travel to Batumi for a professional tournament, where he will face world and European champion Nodari Bojugu.
At the end of May, he will participate in the 2025 European Armwrestling Championship in Romania. All of this became possible thanks to the support of FC "Urartu."
Vachagan Hovhannisyan is a world and European armwrestling champion in the under-70 kg category.