Lucknow proves ‘lucky’ for Phogat— 1st woman to bag wrestling gold
The 23yearold becomes first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold medal
JAKARTA : Once again Lucknow proved ‘lucky’ for the new poster girl of Indian women’s wrestling Vinesh Phogat of Haryana, who wrestled her way to India’s maiden gold in women’s wrestling at the Asiad on Monday.
Phogat, the 2014 Incheon Asian Games bronze medallist, showed how tough she is on the mat by defeating her Japanese rival Irie Yuki in 50 kg category at the GBK Centre here.
Phogat’s win was extra special for hundreds of sportspersons and officials of the Sports Authority of India centre in Lucknow as the ace wrestler has been training here for the last one year after the sports ministry earmarked the SAI centre for her training. And so as Phogat, the two-time gold medallists at the Commonwealth Games, won her bout on Monday, the SAI centre here burst into jubilation, with the sportspersons and officials distributing sweets among themselves and to whoever came their way.
Recalling an interesting incident, the SAI centre inmates said: “Before the start of the camp for the Games, the 23-yearold wrestler surprised everyone one day when she jumped over the wall of the girls’ hostel on the campus, and made it to her room without letting anybody know.”
Speaking to HT on Monday in Jakarta after her golden win, Phogat said: “I do whatever I want to do as I am a rough-n-tough guy, who never thinks about losing.”
She added: “I come from a family where my parents allowed me live like a son, so I act like one and I don’t find anything wrong in it.”
She also accepted that her association with Lucknow was quite important and that she had been enjoying her training here. “I haven’t seen the city much, but the SSI centre is a lucky venue for me as before winning my gold today, I also won a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April this year.” Her coach Kuldeep was full of praise for the role of Lucknow SAI centre in training Phogat for the ‘successful run’.
Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, who also happens to be the chefde-mission of the Indian contingent here, praised Phogat for her success and said all wrestlers were given best possible support to train in Lucknow.
“It’s a lucky centre for us and I hope that in the upcoming World Championships, our wrestlers will win more medals for the country,” he said.
JAKARTA: There were no Monday blues for Vinesh Phogat, who won India’s second gold at the Asian Games after Bajrang Punia had opened the account. Vinesh, who is a cousin of wrestling siblings Geeta and Babita Phogat, is now the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold medal .
A bronze medallist at the 2014 Asian Games and two-time Com- monwealth Games gold medallist, Vinesh stunned Yuki Irie of Japan 6-2 in 50kg freestyle category final before a sizable crowd that included two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar at the GBK Centre.
From the start, the 23-year-old from Haryana dominated proceedings. Vinesh tested Irie early, pushing her twice and then swiftly opened a four-point lead. She then kept her cool and opted to not attack.
With 90 seconds to go, Vinesh chose to attack and twice tried to catch hold of Irie’s leg but to no avail. Though her last-minute defensive tactics cost her one point, Vinesh denied Irie a chance to attack. Soon after conceding one more point, when Iri managed to push her out of the mat, Vinesh again surprised the Japanese by locking her from behind to get two vital points.
Vinesh had made her intentions clear right from her first bout when she defeated China’s Sun Yanan, an old rival and a tough competitor, 8-2 on technical superiority in the pre-quarter finals. She proved too tough for South Korea’s Kim Hyungjoo in the quarter-finals winning 11-0 and outclassed Dauletbike Yakhshimurtova of Uzbekistan 10-0 in the semi-finals.
“I wanted to change the colour of my medal and I was adamant for this even before I landed in Jakarta,” said Vinesh, after her second gold medal in the past five months. “I didn’t even think for a silver medal even when I was going for my final bout.”
Vinesh was out of action for a long time after the 2016 Rio Olympics due to knee injury. “Sushil Kumar had told me never feel disappointed in your life even if you don’t get a medal as that is destiny but keep working hard,” said Vinesh.
“I learnt a lot when I was away from mat. I take a lot of risks in life I would say. I have lot of selfbelief and you can achieve anything if you have that.”
MALIK’S DAMP SQUIB
Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik’s dream of winning an Asian Games medal was extinguished quickly as she went down 2-12 to Korea’s Sim Jong Rim in her repechage bronze medal bout in the 62 kg category. In the 57 kg category, Pooja Dhanda lost 1-6 to Katsuki Sakagami of Japan in the bronze medal contest. India’s last medal hope Sumit (125 kg) was also dashed as he lost to Davit Modzmanashvili of Uzbekistan 0-2 in the repechage bout.