World of good for Vinesh Phogat
CHENNAI: Unlike her teammates, who headed to Kazakhstan for a training camp ahead of the World Championships, wrestler Vinesh Phogat preferred to shift to a quiet village — Kharkhoda in Sonepat district — to train with cadet and junior boys along with Hungarian coach Woller Akos. The training regimen at Pratap Sports School included practice and conditioning sessions for four days and competitive bouts against boys on Tuesdays and Fridays. It lasted for about two weeks. The objective was to improve technique while spending time with loved and dear ones. The idea was to rejuvenate her too.
On Wednesday, as Vinesh became the first Indian woman wrestler to secure Olympic qualification by winning a medal at the World Championships, those days of intense training kept playing in her mind. The most successful woman wrestler of the country felt those days really made a difference. “I trained with cadet and junior boys at my hometown. After the national camp got over in Lucknow, I moved to Sonepat to train with these wrestlers who have represented the country in their age groups. It really helped.”
Coach Akos also felt the time Vinesh spent with her in-laws at Kharkhoda and training she had with boys helped her in clinching the medal.
“The home environment helped refresh her. Practice with the boys improved her techniques and tactics for the event,” the foreign coach told this daily from Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.Having moved up to 53kg from 50kg only ten months ago, the 25-year-old wrestler got the toughest possible draw with the opening bout against the Rio bronze medallist Sofia Mattsson. She though started the campaign with a resounding 13-0 win over Mattsson, reigning world champion Mayu Mukaida from Japan pushed her out of the title race winning the clash 7-0. With the Japanese making it to the final, Vinesh got another shot at the medal through the repechage round and she made it count.
The bronze in the 53kg weight category is also Vinesh’s first in the annual event in her fourth attempts. “It is my first World Championship medal and it is a big thing to win a medal at the Worlds,” Vinesh said.
“I had changed my weight category and in just 10 months, I got this medal. It is the biggest medal of my career till now,” said the elated grappler, who had also won a gold each in 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Before pinning two-time Worlds medallist Maria Prevolaraki of Greece and bagging the medal, Vinesh defeated former World Championship bronze medallist Yuliya Khalvadzhy of Ukraine 5-0 and previous edition’s runner-up Sarah Hildebrandt from the United States 8-2.
Earlier, she lost a point for passivity in the bronze medal bout even as Maria took a medical timeout after suffering a cut on her face in the first round. The Greek wrestler went into the break with a 1-0 lead. Vinesh pulled off a four-point throw in the second round and kept her opponent pinned on the ground to complete the win.
The Hungarian coach said the plan was to keep at a touch distance with the opponent with a lot of arm movement and circular motion. “The strategy was to keep at touch distance of the opponent with a lot of arm movement without stop. Avoiding linear movement was the plan to keep opponent under pressure. In the first round, it did not work but Vinesh increased the movements in the second, opening up the rival. It bore result as one fall was enough to win the bout,” Akos said.
Pooja on course for medal
Having won a 57kg bronze in the 2018 edition, Pooja Dhanda on Thursday can become the first woman wrestler and only second from the country to win two Worlds medals. Competing in 59kg, Pooja won a couple of bouts before going down in the semifinal. She lost the semifinal bout to Russia’s Liubov Ovcharova 0-10 but secured a place in the bronze medal bout.
