Written by Ngagne Diouf | From Aljazeera

A wrestling bonanza is generating public unease in Senegal as large pots of prize money and the sport’s soaring popularity is encouraging a growing number of boys to drop out of school to seek stardom in the arena.

Blanket media coverage and the chance for victors to escape poverty by earning up to $300,000 per contest has fired up the passion for the sport to dizzying levels, with the country’s grandees now joining the spectator.

But concern is growing that the youth are abandoning their education and jobs for a shortcut to fame without any guarantees of success, and observers point out that only a handful ever make it to the top in painfully short careers.

Boys are leaving school in the fifth or sixth grade with others turning their back on low-paid vocations as mechanics, tailors, welders, masons, and carpenters to jump on the wrestling bandwagon.

“Almost all wrestlers have abandoned their original jobs to enter the arena,” said Oumar Diarra, secretary-general of the national sportswriters’ association.

High stakes

Early in the morning young wrestling hopefuls swarm across sand dunes on the outskirts of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, to train in pursuit of an often elusive dream of wealth in a country where 54 percent of people survive below the poverty line.

At least 8,000 unemployed and disadvantaged boys registered with the CNG, the governing body of wrestling in the country. They see the sport as a potential route to success, according to Thierno Ka, the organisation’s deputy chairman.

Read more at Aljazeera