Nobody likes to see champions fall by the wayside. As long as they put their heart and soul into training, results will come. Sunday was, indeed, a sad day for fans of Indian wrestling as Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia came a cropper in the selection trials for the Asian Championship and Paris Olympics qualifiers, both to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in April.
Wrestling news in the last 15 months has largely been shrouded in controversy. With little time left for the Paris Olympics and athletes gearing up in all disciplines, the focus had to return to the sport. Sadly, the heroes of the Tokyo Olympics – Dahiyawonsilver three years ago, and Bajrang a bronze – failed to live up to their billing.
This story is not about controversy at all. With just over four months to go for the Paris extravaganza, everyone wants to see the maximum number of Indian athletes in the French capitalto win medals.
Dahiya has always been spoken of as a grappler with potential. He comes from the same akhara in New Delhi where Sushil Kumar, two-time Olympic medallist, had trained, at the Chhatrasal Stadium.
Indian sport is anticipating medals from previous winners at the Olympics, notably Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindhu and MirabaiChanu. All these athletes have been training hard and have spoken of their dreams.
Sadly, in the case of Dahiya, he was hit by a major injury in his right knee in February 2023. He needed surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) andmedial collateral ligament (MCL). Despite it being a contact sport, Dahiya may have hoped to compete with below-par fitness. Perhaps, the biggest mistake he made was to compete in the trials for the Asian Games last July without being fit.
Once he failed to make itin those trials, he went to Dr Dinesh Pardiwala, a well-known orthopaedic surgeon in Mumbai, for surgery. This was a major procedure and there was no short cut in getting back to competitive wrestling. Anyone who has followed the career of VineshPhogat would vouch that retuning from surgery in any part of the leg is not easy. Vinesh has been through it twice, in 2016 and 2023.
There are reasons to believe that the phase of rest, rehab, strengthening and then coming back to the mat was not easy forDahiya. It takes a lot of effort and, more importantly, patience to cope with such a surgery. On Sunday, it became clear he was not in the best shape or form as he lost tamely to Aman Sehrawat, a well-known grappler.
Dahiya will face criticism as he has hardly competed in bouts. In January, he competed in a Grand Prix in Nice, France, and won a bronze medal. People started believing that he had returned to form, and social media also celebrated his win. That fact was that this was not a big meet and after that medal, Dahiya did not prepare hard enough.
Two nationals have been held this year, in Pune and Jaipur. He did not compete in either. With such an attitude, or a chip on his shoulder, for Dahiya to have expected favours in the trials was wrong. So many wrestlers are hungry. They have been starved of competition and to beat an Olympic medallist like Dahiya was special, as Aman would have realised.
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As for Bajrang, he has been seen more as an activist than a wrestler who has the talent and hunger to do well. If you Google him, you will find more news and images of him being the face of wrestling’s revolt against the establishment.
To be sure, Bajrang was lucky when he made it to the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, without trials. He got exposed, failed to win a medal and had no excuses. At least with Dahiya, there were fitness issues. In any sport, without the full rehab protocol, it is impossible to be in the best shape. Bajrang did not train, he did not sweat in the gym or on the mat. Images posted on social media can be misleading. He did make a few trips abroad, at the expense of the Indian government.
Bajrang has only himself to blame for this mess. He was lucky to have won his first bout on Sunday, against Ravinder (3-3). What training Bajrang did in Russia, nobody knows.
Later on Sunday, Bajrang was crushed by Rohit Kumar (9-1) in the semi-finals. For the record, Rohit has done well as a youngster.
For all those speculating whether there will be another chance for Bajrang and Dahiya to qualify for the Paris Olympics, the answer is a “no”. Firstly, whoever wins the quota places for India in April in Bishkek, it will be a case of wait and watch. If the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) does decide to have trials later, there is no guarantee Dahiya and Bajrang will feature in them. It is not likely to be an open trial.
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