Historic double silver for India at U-23 World Senior Wrestling Championship

CHANDIGARH: With Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt’s careers coming to their fag end, the big question is who’ll be the flagbearer of Indian men’s

wrestling

in the coming times? A certain 23-year-old, lithely built lad from Khudan village in Jhajjar, Haryana, has put his hands up.

Experts consider him to be the “next big thing” in Indian men’s freestyle wrestling and Bajrang Punia didn’t disappoint, winning silver in the 65kg category at the World U-23 Senior Wrestling Championship, which was held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It was double delight for India as another Haryana wrestler,

Vinod Omprakash

, who hails from Jind, also bagged silver (in 70kg freestyle category) on the same day.

History was also created with Punia and Omprakash’s feat, as India returned with three silvers from a world championship for the first time. Ritu Phogat had won silver in the women’s 48kg weight class on Saturday.

This performance bettered the one silver and two bronze that India had won in the 2013 World Wrestling Championship in Budapest, Hungary.

While Punia lost his final to Russia’s Nachyn Sergeevitch Kuular by a 6-17 margin, Omprakash came second best to USA’s Richard Lewis 1-3 over the two rounds. “I am disappointed to miss out on the gold medal. Everyone remembers the champion,” Punia told TOI from Bydgoszcz, Poland.

In his pre-quarters, Punia absolutely hammered Panah Ilyasli of Azerbaijan 5-0, before coming out on top against Heydar Yavuz of Turkey 7-5 in the quarterfinals. The semifinal, against junior world championship bronze medallist Younes Emamichoghaei of Iran, was really tough and it seemed Punia would be knocked out. Emam took a 2-0 lead very early in the contest. Punia bounced back and brought things on level terms with a couple of takedowns. Going into the final few minutes of the bout, both wrestlers were tied at 4-4.

“I moved a lot and played a counterattacking game in the final few minutes and that paid off for me,” said Punia. The result, he won by a 9-4 margin.

Punia used to train at the Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi under Dronacharya awardee Ramphal Maan. When Maan moved to Sonipat in 2014, Punia left Chhatrasal and preferred to stay with Maan.

Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt considers Punia to be his protégé and now the 23-year-old trains at Dutt’s wrestling academy in Gohana, Sonipat - still under Maan.

The coach threw light on how Punia could have won a medal at the senior Worlds in Paris in August earlier this year, but lost out since the Wrestling federation of India (WFI) had not facilitated proper food for the wrestlers. India didn’t win a single medal in that championship.

“This time, though, I made sure that Bajrang lands in Poland just two days before his match day, not like the Paris Worlds when he went early and was not facilitated the diet he requires. Ek pehelwaan ko uski khuraak bahut zaroori hot hai (For a wrestler, his diet is of utmost importance).

“I gave him packed homemade food for his entire stay in Poland. The chapatis were augmented with milk in it and we gave him the food that gives him strength. That’s why, he could wrestle with a free mind in Poland,” Maan disclosed.