Bajrang Punia eyes Tokyo Olympics gold medal

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, June 25

"It's my dream to bring gold for India at the 2020 Olympics as no Indian has done that before," says Asian Games gold medalist wrestler Bajrang Punia. He was in the city for the inaugural ceremony of ASICS showroom at Model town here as its brand athlete.

He said, "As very less number of youngsters are opting for sports, parents must encourage their children to play sports since early age. The government also must provide stadiums and other sports equipments in all villages."

Punia is the world's number one grappler in the men's 65-kg freestyle category. He has won accolades in Asian Games, Commonwealth Games as well as the World Championship last year. Talking about his journey so far, Punia said he made his international debut in 2013 at the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi. He said he was not picked in the original Indian squad, but was only included at the eleventh hour as Yogeshwar Dutt was injured.

"Yogeshwar bhai has always been my support system. He then told me to give my best and prove myself to the world. I bagged bronze and was elated that I won a medal for my country. Since then, I have been practicing even harder and had won eight gold medals in his last nine tournaments," he said.

He further said his focus was now on the 2019 World Championships, which was scheduled to be held at Kazakhstan's Nur-Sultan from September 14 to 22, as the championship would serve as the qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics.

Sharing about the struggle he did to be the world number 1 wrestler, Punia said, "My father Balwan Singh Punia was too a wrestler and due to financial problems at home, he left his sport and turn to farming to support his family. I then decided to live up to his expectations and become a wrestler, as wrestling was always in my blood." He said on August 19, he emulated the golden feat at the Asian Games bagging the first gold for India in Jakarta.

When asked if Indian wrestlers command a lot of respect on the world stage, Bajrang said ever since Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar had proved their mettle at the Olympics and World Championships, the wrestlers from other countries take Indian wrestlers seriously.