There was a reel showing a bunch of young girls dancing to a peppy Punjabi number with medals around their necks. One of them had a trophy in her hand. Some in tracksuits, some in their singlets — it was the Indian women’s team, which finished on top at the U-17 Wrestling World Championship held in Amman in Jordan from August 19-25.
The video didn’t go viral. A lot of things do these days, but at one point in time on one particular social media outlet, total views were in two digits. There may be reasons for this. The country is still in shock and protesting against the murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Plus, sports fever is in a lull at the moment, following the completion of the Paris Olympics and waiting for the Paralympics to begin.
Even then, the visuals of those girls shaking their legs in celebration were striking. There are several reasons to rate them as such. This was the first time that the Indian women’s freestyle team secured the top place in the U-17 World Championships. They won five gold medals, to go with a silver and two bronze. With 186 points, they were well ahead of the Japan, who logged 146.
This is no flash in the pan. At the Asian U-17 Championship, India had finished on top, ahead of traditionally strong teams like China and Japan. The women had finished first at last year’s U-20 World Championship as well. These are encouraging developments, but not a lot should be pre-empted on the basis of them because the chasm between age-group and the senior section is a gaping one.
However, that is not the point. This success or the gold medals are not to be celebrated at face value. More significant is the fact that they came after a disappointing wrestling campaign by India at the Paris Olympics, compounded by the heartbreaking disqualification of Vinesh Phogat. None of the four women wrestlers secured medals and the lone bronze was claimed by Aman Sehrawat.
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The success of these ‘iron girls’ becomes more important than it is because of the backdrop it came in. Sometimes, it’s the context which determines the true value of an achievement. Amman is a case in point. There was a pall of gloom descending on Indian wrestling following developments of a myriad kind over the last year-and-a-half. These girls have brought the smiles back and in style.
Neha Sangwan had gone to receive Vinesh following her return from Paris and welcomed her with a garland made of currency notes. Neha (57kg), Aditi Kumari (47kg), Pulkit (65kg), Kajal (69kg) and Mansi Lather (69kg) paid a bigger tribute to their idol by securing gold medals in Amman. Shrutika Patil (silver, 46kg), Bala Raj (bronze, 40kg) and Muskan (bronze, 53kg) were not far behind.
Together, they revitalised a sport that was looking like losing momentum. Sometimes, one poor campaign can derail a lot of hard work, because freefall follows no rule. It could have been natural for a lot of youngsters to lose interest and pay less attention to what they had been pursuing over a period of time. Digesting a sudden dip is more difficult than accepting a setback that was expected.
It’s in this respect that the victorious run of these girls is important. A severe disappointment needs a massive boost for things to come back on track and this resounding success in Amman can be exactly what was needed. No matter how many saw their spontaneous show of elation. What the girls have done has the potential to revitalise Indian wrestling, particularly in the women’s section.
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