BENGALURU: The scenes at the training centre in Jharsa, Gurgaon is quite unique these days. One wrestler, Seema Bisla, stands out. She is the lone woman amongst a group of male wrestlers. The 26-year-old is usually at the venue by 5:30 am, where she trains under the watchful eyes of her coach Paramjit Singh. Seema, who is set for the World Championship, starting Saturday, could not fly along with her teammates for a camp in Kazakhstan due to ‘emergency work’.
She had to complete the formalities before joining Haryana government after resigning from the Railways job. She will leave on September 14 as her event starts later. She is leaving no stone unturned in her quest of a medal. So far nothing has come easy for her. There was a time in her junior days when she suffered a neck injury. Her future looked bleak due to that injury, which increased her weight. She battled it out in the 67 kg category as her efforts to reduce weight would only mean opening doors to more injuries.
The wrestler will now be taking part in 50kg category, a category she has been thriving. This shift happened after Vinesh Phogat decided to move up to the 53kg weight class. Paramjit is aware of her strengths and weaknesses and has been putting her to test against boys her size and bigger than her (62 kg) in training. “Preparing against the boys has put her in good stead. After training with boys, when she wrestles in international competitions against stronger girls, she will not feel their strength and power much. This regime has helped her become more confident,” he said.
Paramjit has been working on Seema’s speed and endurance. She trains for around five hours daily. Though Seema failed to bring her A-game in the Asian Championships in April, things have looked bright. She won her first gold in the 50kg section in Yasar Dogu Ranking series in July and won silver in the Grand Prix of Spain.
Those medal-winning performances has helped her attain second seed for the mega competition in Nur-Sultan. “For the Asian Championships, I did not have much time but I have prepared well for Worlds. When you are ranked higher, you will feel good. But, I am only thinking about doing well and winning a medal would be the ultimate goal. It does not matter what your rankings/seedings are unless you win a medal,” said Seema.