CHENNAI: Jai Bhagwan made a great start to his international career when he won a silver medal at the Cadets Wrestling World Championships in 1991. His senior debut too was memorable as he clinched a gold medal in the 48kg weight category in the 1995 Commonwealth Championship.
International medals, however, eluded him since then even as he kept winning laurels for his employer Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at the national level in his long career spanning around two decades. Jai Bhagwan, who still has that pain of not living up to his full potential, later married to a national-level wrestler Seema. The couple were blessed with two children — a daughter and a son. Given their unfulfilled dream, Jai Bhagwan and his wife decided to make their children wrestlers apart from training a lot of other aspiring grapplers in Haryana. And to an extent, daughter Mansi Lather is helping the couple realise their dream. A podium finish in the 68kg weight category at the ongoing U20 World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia on Friday was yet another step towards it. "My grandfather was a wrestler. My father couldn't pursue the sport but all his four sons including me were into the sport. So it can be said that we are a family of wrestlers," Jai Bhagwan told TNIE. He retired as a deputy commandant from CRPF in 2022 but not before helping his team win a plenty of medals in the All India Police Games and National Games.
Sharing his thoughts on his international career, Jai Bhagwan said, "I could not reach that level but I want my children to do everything that we (he and his wife) could not do. I want them to win international medals. We also train other kids and hope they too medal in the international meets." His 14-year-old son Harshit is also pursuing wrestling.
Talking about Mansi, the 19-year-old recently won a gold in the U23 Asian Championships and finished third in the U20 continental meet. She finished on top of the podium in the U17 World and Asian Championships in 2024 and bagged a bronze in the Senior Asian Championships a year later.
After finishing third in the Asian Championships, Mansi struggled with a knee injury sustained during one of the training sessions. The same was reflected in results over the next 14 months. "It's part and parcel of the game but now she is fit. As a professional, you have to deal with injuries and she dealt with it to make a strong comeback," added the father.
That comeback was there to be seen in Slovakia as Mansi defeated Taina Rose Fernandez of USA 10-2 in the qualification round before pinning Norway's Leah Melina Falkeid Samsonsen in the quarterfinal. In the semifinal, she defeated Evangeliia Berezhnova of Russia 12-0 by technical superiority to enter the summit clash. She might have lost a close final 1-2 against Chenling Song of China but the silver medal will definitely give her a lot of confidence going forward.
Tanvi, Komal bag bronze
Meanwhile, Tanvi Gundesh Magdum (57kg) and Komal (59kg) won a bronze medal each in their respective weight categories. However, the freestyle men wrestlers from the country couldn't live up to expectations as all four of them returned empty handed. Rupesh (57kg), Rohit Kumar (65kg), Saurabh Yadav (79kg) and Nikhil (92kg) were in action but couldn't reach the medal rounds in their respective weight categories.