Pakistan, July 10 -- The whistle blows, sending dozens of hulking wrestlers chasing a football in the Mongolian grasslands - a World Cup twist in their gruelling training for one of the country's oldest sporting traditions.

"The World Cup is happening now, so we wanted to do something creative," said four-time national champion Batsuuri "Basu" Namsraijav, who has founded his own training camp where wrestlers spend weeks preparing for the annual Naadam competition. The brief change of pace in the otherwise demanding programme "is still an intense workout", Basu told AFP.

The cohort training at his newly built Basu Sports Complex are among more than 1,000 wrestlers from across the East Asian country hoping to emerge victorious from the tw...