- विज्ञापन -
Bengaluru: The Senior National Wrestling Championships 2024 will kick off on Friday at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium, featuring some of India’s top wrestlers.
Haryana aims to dominate the event with 28 wrestlers participating across various categories, while a total of 24 states and Union Territories will be represented. More than 700 entries have been received from across the country, including athletes from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
The host state, Karnataka, will send a strong team of 32 wrestlers competing in Greco-Roman, freestyle, and women’s wrestling categories, led by medal contenders Gopal Koli, Mahesh P Gouda, and Shweta Sanju Annikeri.
Notable wrestlers include Y Minakshi Devi from Manipur, who will compete in the 50kg category after winning gold at the U-23 Asian Championship earlier this year and holding a silver medal from the World Championship. Haryana’s Jyoti, competing in the 53kg category, is another athlete to watch, having participated in the Junior World Championship in Spain and medaled at the Cadet Asian Championship.
Other female competitors include Haryana’s Anjali in the 59kg category and Radhika, also from Haryana, who will compete in the 68kg category. Delhi’s Sushma Shokeen, a bronze medallist at the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship, will participate in the 53kg category, while her teammate Bipasha, a Junior Asian Wrestling champion, competes in the 72kg category.
In the men’s division, Arjuna awardee and Asian Games bronze medallist Sunil Dabarpurya from Haryana will headline the 87kg Greco-Roman category. His fellow state competitor, Sunny, who won gold at the World Police Games in Canada 2023, will feature in the 63kg category. Another promising wrestler, Anuj Kumar from Haryana, will compete in the 70kg freestyle category.
Lalit Kaushal from Madhya Pradesh, participating in the 61kg freestyle category, expressed his excitement about competing in Bengaluru for the first time, highlighting the good facilities provided for the event. He is hopeful for a medal and sees Delhi’s Neeraj as his toughest competitor in the category.
Karandeep Singh from Punjab, competing in the 125kg category, is optimistic about Punjab’s performance, noting that several wrestlers from the Railways Sports Promotion Board are part of the team. He previously won a silver medal in the nationals in Jaipur and is now competing in a higher weight category.
The competitions will feature three disciplines: Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and Women’s Wrestling. Matches will be held according to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and United World Wrestling (UWW) rules on three approved mats across various weight categories.
