National women’s wrestling coach seeks more despite CWG success
Indian women's wrestling coach Jitendra Yadav doesn’t want his wards to bask in the attention following their medals won at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and has already set sights on the World Championships to be held in Belgrade from September 10 to 18.
No sooner had the Indian wrestling contingent landed at IGI Airport in New Delhi in the wee hours of Tuesday, than the coach reminded all six wrestlers of the importance of the World's medals, including CWG 2022 gold medallists Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat.
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“In my opinion, the CWG medals represent just the beginning for our wrestlers. The world's best athletes will meet next month at Belgrade. That would be the real test for our wrestlers so there will be no break in training,” he said on Tuesday. The focus will then turn to next year’s Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The national camp will start at the Lucknow SAI Centre on Wednesday. The trials for the Worlds will be held on August 21.
Indian women wrestlers won two gold, a silver and three bronze this time, better than the haul of 1-2-3 at 2018 Gold Coast. Still, Yadav was unhappy with what his trainees missed out.
“Our wrestlers could have won more gold medals if they were more disciplined. The results are not up to my satisfaction.”
He said Malik and Phogat were disciplined in training and won gold. Phogat stayed for 118 days in the national camp despite her injury after the Tokyo Olympics, while Malik spent 140 days in the camp till the CWG.
“Attending all training sessions at the camp was meaningful,” he said.
“Spending so many days at the camp isn’t that significant, but how much time you spend in training is more important,” he said. “Sakshi’s success is the perfect example of her seriousness in training. I can’t remember her missing a single training session.”
"We’ve won all six medals this time as well, including one extra gold (than in 2018), but I am not satisfied. I wanted two more gold medals because I knew our wrestlers were much superior to our rivals. Anshu Malik should have won gold,” said Yadav.
Besides winners Malik (62kg) and Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) took silver and Pooja Gehlot (50kg), Pooja Sihag (76kg), and Divya Kakran (60kg) settled for bronze. In 2018, Phogat (gold), Babita Kumari, Pooja Dhanda (silver), and Sakshi Malik, Divya Kakran, and Kiran Bishnoi (bronze) were the medallists.
Yadav, an Indian Air Force coach, initially faced challenges in handling the wrestlers after taking over from Kuldeep Malik in February. But he has emphasised on discipline, even turning away a few on grounds of indiscipline.
He expects new faces in the squad for the World Championships. “During the CWG trials, there were many talented youngsters who gave tough competition to the seniors and lost. This time too, they are going to challenge the seniors at the trials.”
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