All eyes on Asian winner trio as World Junior Championship begins in Slovakia

Deepak, Sachin and Sajan would look to break the 17-year-old jinx of not winning a gold medal.

It has been 17 years since India won gold in the World Junior Championship and, from Monday, it will be playing with the sole intention of breaking this jinx. Recently, in the Asian Junior Championship, India got 18 medals including three gold. The three winners—Sajan, Deepak Punia and Sachin Rathi—are the members of the current squad. Apart from this, 17 out of 18 team members are the part of this upcoming championship.

Last time in this championship, India’s Palwinder Singh Cheema and Ramesh Gulia won gold at Tashkant in 2001. In recent years, Ritu and Ravi has won silver. Previously, bronze medals were won by Veerdev Gulia in freestyle, Sajan in Greco-Roman and Manju in women’s category at Tampere, Finland. The then team’s Sajan, along with other six players, are part of the contingent for this championship as well.

In the Indian team, more than 65% players are from Haryana alone. There are players from Maharashtra, UP, Punjab and Delhi also. In fact, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been put a lot of emphasis in this direction for last couple of years. As a result, the number of wrestlers winning gold in the national championship from different states has increased.

There have been huge expectations from players like Deepak, Sachin and Sajan. Deepak in PWL-3 has come out as a surprise to everyone by defeating a well known heavyweight wrestler Satyavrat Kadian. Deepak proved himself by winning a gold at the Asian Junior. He has won gold and silver in the past in the same championship. He has been the world cadet champion as well.

Sachin, a 74 Kg wrestler, is in the best of his form now. He has not only won Asian Junior gold but has also been selected in the World Junior and World Senior as well. At the Greco-Roman wrestling, Sajan was the gold medalist at the Asian Junior Championship after defeating the Iranian wrestler.

Naveen, Suraj Kokate, Vishal Kaliraman and Mohit in freestyle, Vijay, Sunil Kumar and Viresh Kundu in Greco-Roman has also raised the expectations after winning medals in Asian Junior. Amit Saroha and Deepak Punia (different from the one mentioned above) would be starting with their international career in freestyle and Greco-Roman respectively.

It is for the first time that the Indian women are participating in the World Junior Championship. Mansi won silver in the Asian Junior while Swati Shinde and Karuna won bronze. Radhika, Jaspreet and Nisha will give a start to their career at this tournament. Anshu is participating from 62 to 59 this time and Sonika from 72 to 68.

This time, India will face strong competition from America, Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in freestyle, Iran, Turkey, Ukrain, Georgia in Greco-Roman and Japan, China, Russia and America in women’s category.