CHENNAI: Maharashtra's Amruta Pujari was the lone woman wrestler from India to enter the final of the ongoing U23 World Championships in Las Vegas, USA. The 22-year-old might have lost the gold medal bout against Iryna Zablotska of Ukraine on Friday night but the silver medal highlighted her growth as a wrestler only in a few months. In May this year, she won bronze at the U23 Asian Championships and the second-place finish in the world meet shows her rapid progression.
Hailing from the historic town of Shirol in Kolhapur district, where Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his army defeated the Mughal Empire in a war, Amruta followed the footsteps of her grandfather and great grandfather. It was under the rule of Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Kolhapur became a hotbed for traditional mud wrestling. The ruler sponsored wrestlers from the area by fulfilling their dietary requirements and arranging local dangals for them. Amruta's great grandfather was one of those wrestlers and fittingly enough Amruta decided to carry forward that legacy even as her father Shashikant Pujari bucked the trend and decided to work in a nearby sugar mill. For Amruta, RUBICS group, sponsors her dietary and travel requirements.
"She started with a small akhara in the town before shifting to Loknete Sadashivrao Mandlik National Wrestling SAI Centre at Murgud, Kolhapur," Dada Lavate, the coach, who built a hostel for girls on his ow n initiative at the centre, told this daily. Amruta moved to the centre around six years ago and won the Maharashtra Kesari women's title in 2023. This year, she clinched two titles in the same event held in Solapur.
"Amruta used to play a lot of sports including handball in school. There was a time when every household in Shirol used to have at least one wrestler so it was natural for Amruta to switch to wrestling. The town is like a feeder centre to Kolhapur, which has given the country some of its prominent wrestlers," added the coach.
Amruta started her campaign at the championships by pinning Zhibekzhan Sabyrzhanova of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinal and repeated the show against Chinese wrestler Wenjin Qiu in the semifinal. The second win holds prominence as Qiu is reigning U20 Asian champion in the 72kg weight category. The Chinese also won the continental and world title in the U17 age group last year.
The Indian wrestler, however, lost the final bout against Iryna Zablotska of Ukraine. She was trailing 0-6 when her opponent sealed the match by pinning the Indian wrestler.
With the silver, the Indian women finished their campaign with two medals. Earlier, Komal had won a bronze medal in the 59kg weight category. "The exposure will only help Amruta improve herself. She defeated the Chinese opponent by a fall in the semifinal. It was a good win especially given the past medals the Chinese had won. The final might not have turned out the way we were expecting but this experience will come handy in the future," signed off the coach.
