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Too quickly, we pigeon-hole people and their interests. Take men of faith for example. Some might play a bit of sport, but really, they are more scholarly types whose hobby would probably be, say, reading. Wrong. In the Barossa, by day, Guntars Baikovs spends his time as an affable Tanunda Lutheran pastor, but in his spare time, he is Australia’s super heavyweight arm wrestling champion. Yes, arm wrestling. Here is a pastor who can deliver a sermon and bend his arm as well. Forget the perception of the test of strength being only carried out by inebriated patrons in hotels or at parties, arm wrestling actually is a sport with growing interest around Australia. “Arm wrestling is a growing sport with associations in every state of Australia, except South Australia,” Pastor Guntars said. “Hopefully that will change in time.” The sport is more complex than most people would imagine being broken up into weight divisions, male and female, left and right handed. Last month, at the Novotel Hotel in Sydney, Pastor Guntars took on the country’s best to win the super heavyweight (100+kg) title, in his first formal competition in Australia. But the venerable Lutheran minister is not lacking in experience. “I first did arm wrestling as a young child in my home country of Latvia,” Pastor Guntars said. “I found I was pretty good at it and later on in high school started to lift weights and do body building to improve my strength and entered competitions in Latvia.” In 2003, he answered the call of the church eventually being ordained in 2007. While studying, the Pastor still kept pursuing his hobby of arm wrestling and was able to win national titles in Latvia plus other victories in European competitions. In 2008 the family had the opportunity to move to St Louis in America to further his studies and they spent four-and-a-half years in the United States and again Pastor Guntars proved his talent with a win in a multi-state championship defeating a few of North America’s strongest arm wrestlers. The Baikovs took the opportunity to move to Tanunda in February this year but the churchman’s fame as an arm wrestler came with him and associations in Melbourne and Perth have taken the opportunity to have him make guest appearances. “There was one gentleman in Perth who was Australia’s left handed champion and had never been beaten in this country ,” Pastor Guntars said. That record came to a sudden halt when the much-travelled churchman won a challenge five-nil. “Arm wrestling is not simply about strength, it is very technical, needs discipline and a long preparation. In fact it is possible to nearly beat your opponent before locking hands with the correct approach.” But despite his success, arm wrestling remains only a hobby for Pastor Guntars – his focus is on spreading the word of God through the St Paul’s and Zion Gnadenberg congregations. And through the news release of his sporting prowess, Pastor Guntars asks people to consider heading along to see if his preaching in Tanunda and Moculta matches with his arm wrestling skills. He noted the 2014 world championships would be in Lithuania and he expressed an interest in competing and also taking up the opportunity to catch up with family in Latvia. Interested people can catch up with the arm-wrestling Pastor at his blog address of: www.PastorsBlog.com.au

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