They flex muscle, meat supply chokes

BELGAUM: The non-vegetarians of Gokak taluk heaved a sigh of relief as the three-day national-level bodybuilding competition concluded.Now, the public can get meat easily after days of virtual ‘meat crisis’. The scarcity of meat was felt with supplies being largely directed to the bodybuilding competition.Satish Sugars had organised the annual competition for the fifth consecutive  year at Valmikhi grounds at Gokak town. About 450 bodybuilders from all over the country had taken part.As much as 21 quintals of boiled chicken, 30,000 eggs, 8,000 banana, four quintals of sweet potato, 10,000 litre mineral water and 3,000 pound bread had been ordered from the wholesale suppliers for the three-day event. Organisers had served 3 kg boiled chicken, 24 boiled eggs, 1 kg boiled sweet potato, 400 grams of beans, two dozen banana, half a kg green salad, half-pound bread jam, 300 gram jaggery, honey, milk and dry fruits for each body builders every day.Bodybuilder Mallesh Honagekar who was  champion of champions in the fourth Satish Sugars Classic competition held last year said that he had participated in many national level competitions but could not got such kind of innutritious food and snacks elsewhere.Sachin Jadhav, Uttam Rathod, V L Hombal and Arif Pirzade who were the in-charge of the Food Committee said that 20 expert chefs prepared diet and regular food and 150 volunteers worked to serve the food.As meat was not easily available in retail chicken centre, non-vegetarians purchased paying double prices and also from shops of other taluks.