17-year-old son of farmer puts poor facilities under mat to win gold

LUDHIANA: Sandeep Singh, 17, a young wrestler who lives and trains at Sri Hargobind Miri Piri Akhada, Khanna, has won a gold medal in the school national games, in 84kg weight category. Sandeep, a resident of a village in Mansa shifted to Khanna in 2011 to live his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. His father, a farmer, struggled hard to help his son realise his dream.Eventually, Sandeep, despite facing a lack of basic amenities and practising with poor infrastructure, managed to win.
Until last month, his wrestling centre only had one mat for practice, which too was torn. The gym equipment and players' rooms are old and in a ramshackle condition. Moreover, academy students pool in money to pay the electricity bill of the academy, which amounts to an average of Rs 40,000.
Gurpreet Singh, member of the managing committee of Khanna wrestling center, said, "DSP Mukesh Kumar runs Miri Piri Akhara with the help of other wrestling enthusiasts. We have produced many national and international level wrestlers. However, no aid is given to us, which is sad."
Rubaljeet Singh, 22, who recently won a silver medal in the Commonwealth championship, Singapore in the 97kg weight category, is a student of this academy. Earlier, Rubaljeet won the Asian championship, 2013 and Junior World Championship, 20.
Sandeep said, "I am happy with my performance as I defeated opponent from Rajasthan in the finals, 10-0. If given proper facilities, I am sure we can deliver better results."
Sandeep's prior achievements include a silver in the sub-junior National, 2016 and bronze in Sub-junior Asia Championship, Taiwan in 2016. An official said, "The department gave a new mat, a multi-gym kit and two dummies last month. Before that we were given no aid from the sports department. The problem is with basic infrastructure. The centre was built years ago and since then, it has not been renovated even once. The aluminum sheets of the roof were blown away in a storm last year. Moreover, paying an electricity bill of around Rs 40,000 every two months is a huge burden."
The sports department provides diet and other facilities to five school and five college students in the sports wing of the centre. But the other 35 players bear all expenses of diet as well as medical requirements. In spite of its condition, the Khanna wrestling centre has many students from other districts and states like Bathinda, Pathankot, Kapurthala, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.
Mohit Malik, 18, a national level wrestler from Haryana said, "This academy has given me an identity. Punjabi wrestlers are more efficient and stronger." Sunny Singh, 21, two-time all India freestyle wrestler from Haryana said, "Training is the best. If given better infrastructure, better results are guaranteed."