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Burnaby champ an armful at Canadian nationals

The man with the golden arm added two more national honours to his armwrestling resumé. Anthony Dall'Antonia of Burnaby won his 10th and 11th titles at the Canadian National Armwrestling Championships in Ottawa over the Labour Day weekend.
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Anthony Dall'Antonia of Burnaby, left, and Vancouver arm wrestling clubmate Marlon Hicks of Vancouver were both double winners at the national championships in Ottawa last week.

The man with the golden arm added two more national honours to his armwrestling resumé.

Anthony Dall'Antonia of Burnaby won his 10th and 11th titles at the Canadian National Armwrestling Championships in Ottawa over the Labour Day weekend.

Dall'Antonia took top spot at 80 kilograms with both the right and left arms, deposing hall of famer George Iszakouits of Ontario in a marathon 15-minute final against the armwrestling legend.

"It was the biggest match of my career," said Dall'Antonia, who defeated the No. 1 right-arm wrestler in the country for a sixth time in his career.

"Most every one of my wins took between one and 10 seconds. But this one ended on fouls," said Dall'Antonia after Iszakouits lifted his elbow off the table.

"Yeah, (Iszakouits) has been around arm wrestling for 30 years. He's in the hall of fame, but I'm the current top dog."

The double wins gave Dall'Antonia a total of 11 Canadian titles in three separate weight classes over the past seven years.

Dall'Antonia is also undefeated with the left arm dating back to 2004.

"It's just for fun. I get a national title and I'm the best in the country. That's about it. It's something I enjoy. Some people train to look good in the mirror. I work out to gear my training towards something," Dall'Antonia said.

North Burnaby training partner Marlon Hicks also won a pair of national titles, taking the right arm at 75 kg and the left arm at 70 kg.

With the national titles, both grapplers qualified for the world championships in Kazahkstan. But neither plan to attend.

Last year, Dall'Antonia placed fifth of the 33 countries competing at the worlds, which were held in Nevada. His best-ever showing was a fourth place in 2004.

Next year, the world championships will be held in Brazil and Dall'Antonia hopes to be there.

But first he will have to add to his hardware at the nationals, which will be hosted by the North Burnaby-based Vancouver Armwrestling Club and staged at the River Rock Casino in Richmond.

"I'm hoping to crack the top three in 2012. But the worlds is a tough one to win," Dall'Antonia said.

For more information on the sport of armwrestling, go to VancouverArmWrestling.com.