Olympic-bound wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia nominated for Arjuna Award

Olympic-bound Indian wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia have been nominated for the Arjuna award by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Wednesday. 19-year-old Anshu Malik and Sarita Mor have also been nominated by the WFI for the prestigious award.

Deepak and Ravi had showcased exemplary performances at the 2019 World Championship in Nur Sultan. The former won a silver medal while his compatriot had bagged a bronze, along with a ticket to Tokyo.

Ravi has emerged as a strong medal contender in the 57kg category at the Olympics, where he is seeded fourth. Before winning a silver medal at the Poland Open, he had defended his Asian title in Almaty.

On the other hand, young wrestler Malik has won five medals in six tournaments, including the Asian title since starting her career in the senior circuit in 2020. Sarita Mor won the Asian title in 59kg in Almaty, but unfortunately, missed out on the Olympic qualification.

“All four wrestlers have done well and deserved recognition, so we have sent their application. We have also nominated coaches Vikram, Kuldeep Malik and Sujeet Maan for the Dronacharya award,” WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar was quoted as saying by PTI.

It must be noted that national women’s coach Kuldeep Malik is already a recipient of the Dhyanchand award. Hence, there are chances that his application may not be considered for Dronacharya.

Sujeet Mann had bagged four Asian medals during his wrestling career before joining Railways as a coach. He was also associated with the Indian men’s freestyle team as national coach between 2011 to 2019.

The WFI has also nominated Jagroop Rathi, R K Hooda (secretary of Haryana wrestling association) and R S Kundu in the lifetime achievement category (Dronacharya), the WFI has nominated Jagroop Rathi, R K Hooda and R S Kundu. For the Dhyanchand award, WFI has sent names of Sajjan Singh, Jai Prakash and Dushyant Sharma.

(With PTI Inputs)

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