The joy of Amit Kumar winning a silver medal was yet to sink in, when the news of Bajrang Kumar winning bronze at the World Wrestling Championship broke. The 19-year-old Bajrang defeated Mongolian Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan in the 60kg freestyle category on Tuesday. After the qualifying round bashing against Bulgaria’s Vladimir Dubov, Bajrang made an exceptional comeback in the repechage round, pinning down opponents from Japan, Romania and Mongolia.
“I started out badly and went down 0-7 in the qualifying round against Dubov. But things went as planned in the repechage round,” Bajrang told TNIE from Budapest. Bajrang was sent in as a replacement for Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt and did not disappoint. It looks as if the wrestlers are on a mission to win medals. “Yogeshwar bhai was there to motivate me all the time. His presence was a great morale booster for me,” added a jubilant Bajrang.
Another Mahabali Satpal prodigy, Bajrang showed his technical prowess in a bout full of attacking moves against the Mongolian.
“Bajrang is technically very sound. To go with it, he is very disciplined as well. So I was very confident of his victory. Although this was just his second international tournament, he performed exceptionally well,” said an elated Satpal. Even in the absence of seasoned grapplers like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar, the young Indian contingent has managed to put up a splendid show. “They locked horns with wrestlers from Japan and Iran and emerged on top,” said Satpal. “Most of our boys are really young and have recently come from the junior circuit. They have already started winning medals in senior championships, which is a sign of better things to come,” added Satpal. This is the only instance where wrestling has fetched two medals in a single edition of the World Championship and with the women’s events still to come, more success is expected.
“Bajrang and Amit have made us proud. We are expecting medals from our girls as well. These medals just prove that wrestling in India is moving in the right direction,” said Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary, Indian Wrestling Federation.