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‘Bahu’ Seema Punia to lead UP’s charge in CWG
Apart from Punia, Uttar Pradesh will have medal hopes from hockey, cricket, weightlifting and wrestling
Veteran discus thrower Seema Punia would be aiming for her fifth medal at the upcoming Commonwealth Games, starting July 28 at Birmingham. And if she makes a podium finish there, it would be her third medal for Uttar Pradesh.
Punia, who hails from Sonepat in Haryana shifted her base to Meerut only after getting married to former discus thrower at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Ankush Punia after the New Delhi’s Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Punia, who has so far three silver and a bronze in her previous four appearances in the Commonwealth Games, would be carrying the hopes of 28 crore people of the state, and the Uttar Pradesh Athletics Association is quite excited to see Punia leading the 13-member contingent of UP athletes at the Birmingham Games.
“We are proud to have Seema Punia as the daughter-in-law of Uttar Pradesh, and I am quite sure that she would again be making a podium finish at the Birmingham Games,” said UPAA’s secretary, PK Srivastava on Tuesday.
He, however, hoped that among the four other track and field athletes from Uttar Pradesh at the CWG 2022 like Rohit Yadav (men’s javelin throw), Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw), Sarita Romit Singh (women’s hammer throw) and Priyanka Goswami (women’s 10km race walk) to has the guts to make a podium finish at Birmingham. Among these four, Meerut’s Annu has enough experience in handling the pressure of CWG as the bronze medallist at the 2014 Asian Games.
Undoubtedly, the 2010 CWG at New Delhi were the best so far in terms of medals for UP as gymnast Ashish Kumar had a silver and a bronze, whereas Alka Tomar (gold in wrestling), Narsingh Pancham Yadav (gold in wrestling) and Swati Singh (bronze in weightlifting) also excelled.
HOCKEY
Member of the bronze-winning men’s hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics, Lalit Upadhyay and a member of the historic fourth-place finish also at the Tokyo Games, Vandana Katariya would be the two athletes from Uttar Pradesh, representing the Indian teams at the Birmingham Games.
“I missed the bronze-medal match at Tokyo Games due to injury, but I am not going to miss the opportunity to go this time at the Birmingham Games as my mission is to score as many as goals to help India make a podium finish there,” said Varanasi’s Lalit, who has eight international medals under his belt, including a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Young forward Vandana, who also has eight internal medals in her pocket, including a silver and a bronze medal at the Asian Games, would also love to see his medal cabinet getting its maiden CWG medal.
CRICKET
Agra’s all-rounder Deepti Sharma and lanky pacer from Bijnor, Meghna Singh are part of the Indian women’s team as cricket has been re-introduced after happening once in 1998 at the Kuala Lumpur edition of the Games.
Both the cricketers, especially Sharma has plenty of experience in playing the T20 format of the game as so far she has 63 wickets in 61 matches. She has also been a handy batter too in the shortest format of the game.
Pacer Meghan, who made her debut for India in a one-off Pink ball (D/N) Test against Australia in Australia last year, has been quite consistent with white ball and has so far taken 14 wickets in ODIs. She would be making her debut in T20 cricket for India at the Birmingham Games.
JUDO
Varanasi’s Vijay Kumar Yadav (men’s 60kg) would be the lone judoka from UP in the CWG 2022. The 26-year-old Yadav is expected to be one of the top-notch contenders to bring back a medal at the Birmingham Games.
A gutsy judoka, Yadav bagged a bronze medal at the Asian Open in Hong Kong in 2018 and won the Commonwealth Championships in Walsall in 2019 and Jaipur in 2018.
WEIGHTLIFTING
After athlete Seema Punia and Annu Rani, experienced weightlifter Punam Yadav (76kg) would surely be looking to change the colour of her medal as the 27-year-old lifter from Mirzapur is staging a comeback in the Games after winning a bronze medal in her debut at Glasgow Games in 2014.
Multiple Asian junior medallists and a Commonwealth junior champion, Punam went on to win the Commonwealth championship in 2015. Punam has already secured a silver medal in the Commonwealth Championships and looks forward to making it three in a row at the Games.
Another athlete in the fray from the state in this discipline will be Varanasi’s Purnima Pandey (women’s +87kg), who would be aiming for her first big medal at the Games. Pandey, who proved herself at the youth and junior level by landing medals in the Asian and Commonwealth Championships, has improved her performance of late.
WRESTLING
In the strong six-member Indian women’s wrestling squad, which includes top Indians like Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat, Muzzafarnagar’s Divya Kakran (women’s 68kg) would be the only hope for UP at the Games. Kakran had a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games, and this time she would be aiming for her first CWG medal.
