Indian women’s kabaddi team captain Ritu Gulia gets rousing welcome in Panipat

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, October 11

The captain of the Indian women’s kabaddi, Ritu Gulia received a rousing welcome on her arrival at Burshyam village of Panipat district on Wednesday. The women’s kabaddi team had clinched the gold medal in the Asian Games at Hangzhou by defeating the Chinese Taipei team.

Both (men and women) Indian kabaddi teams won gold medals in the games.

Born in the remote Sharog village of Shilai area in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, Ritu was married to Rohit Gulia of Burshyam village of Panipat district around one-and-a-half-year ago. Both are employees in the Indian Railways.

Scores of villagers organised a welcome procession for the team captain from Panipat to Burshyam village.

Her husband, who is also a kabaddi player, said it was a proud moment that Indian teams had won gold.

Overwhelmed with the rousing welcome programme, Ritu said, “We had to wait for the gold medal for nine years. We had last won the gold in 2014. The team won silver in 2018. We worked hard to get to this moment.”

“We were confident that our hard work would pay off. The team played exactly as it should have played and we were finally able to win the gold,” Ritu said adding: “We made some mistakes in 2018. As a result, we had to settle with a silver. But this time, our team worked really hard to win the gold medal.”

Ritu thanked the media for supporting the sportspersons and expressed her gratitude to her coaches and family members, saying that no one can achieve their goals without the support of their families. The team captain said parents should support their children in their choices.