A PROFESSIONAL arm wrestler from Christchurch has slammed his opponents to win a national competition.

Marvin Palmer, who lives in Burton, hopes to secure a place in the finals of the World Armwrestling League (WAL) tournament in Las Vegas next year if he can beat his rivals in the European qualifier.

The 38-year-old, who competes in the heavyweight division, started taking the sport seriously after challenging his former boss, also a competitive arm wrestler, to a match ten years ago.

He said: “We had a go and I beat him. He hadn’t lost in 20 years. He showed me some techniques and it went from there.

“We started a local club, and there’s 6-8 of us now who train every week.”

Marvin, who runs his own scaffolding business, won a similar competition, Arm Wars, after five years of competing.

He said he was confident about his chances of success in the WAL tournament, which is the largest of its kind in the world and is televised on ESPN.

“I’ll be big for my weight category at 102kg. I haven’t really got any weaknesses - I’m fast, I’ve got long leverage, and big hands. There was a time when I needed to become more focussed, more technical, and stronger. But I’ve got a few good few ticks in the box now.”

As well as excelling in the field of arm wrestling, Marvin was previously a kickboxing and Jujitsu champion.

“I’ve competed since I was a youngster. I planned to go back to that, but then arm wrestling came along.”

He added not many people were aware of arm wrestling on a professional basis.

“Everyone has arm wrestled somebody, even kids mess about doing it. But not a lot of people know about the professional competitions. A lot of money is going into it now, there’s a £50,000 prize for each arm at the WAL finals.

“You’d never watch someone play darts at a pub, but it has an audience on the professional level. In the same vein, I hope arm wrestling will be as popular as darts in time.”