Navi Mumbai police HQ new hub for champion wrestlers

Over 100 children in the 7-18 years age group are presently enrolled for free training in wrestling at the Navi Mumbai police headquarters in Kalamboli

Navi Mumbai: When eight-year-old Shaktivel Havale from Kharghar secured a gold medal at a district-level wrestling competition, an initiative by Navi Mumbai police for personality development and physical fitness for the young came a full circle. For, Havale was not alone – 35 other wrestlers who trained at the Navi Mumbai police headquarters won medals in the competition in various categories earlier this month.

Navi Mumbai police HQ new hub for champion wrestlers

Over 100 children in the 7-18 years age group are presently enrolled for free training in wrestling at the Navi Mumbai police headquarters in Kalamboli. The training facility was started by head constable and coach Sampatti Yelkar in 2019, when he began training his son and a few of his batchmates. Soon, more children evinced interest and joined the training programme.

“The number of trainees increased as children who were enrolled started taking part in school level events,” said Yelkar, who is also the sports in-charge at the police department and a national level wrestler with a degree from the National Institute of Sports, Patiala. Yelkar’s humble effort started out on an athletics mat. But now, students train on a ground prepared with Panchakarma-infused mud especially brought in from Sangli.

“In 2018, the department procured mats worth nearly ₹7 lakh for intra-police competitions, and students were initially trained on these mats. But when the seniors saw their interest, they were convinced about providing space for an authentic mud ground. Funds for procuring the specialised mud were raised via donations from villagers and like-minded individuals,” he said.

The head constable and coach stated that two dumpers of red soil was brought in from Sangli to the headquarters in 2021.

“This mud was mixed with materials like 300 kg of ghee, 150 kg of cooking oil, 20 kg of camphor, 300 kg of turmeric and huge quantities of milk as well as butter milk, which was used to prepare the ground,” he said.

Students started bringing laurels soon after, winning medals in local competitions and events. But the biggest haul was during the district-level competition organised by Stairs Foundation National Sports Promotion Organisation on October 8. As many as 36 students secured medals in various categories at the event, including Shaktivel Havale who won the gold medal.

“Shaktivel has been training at the headquarters for a year now and has developed amazing techniques. No wonder, he bagged a gold medal in his very first competitive event,” said his father Vinod Havale.

His elder son also trains at the headquarters and secured a medal in the under-12 category. “I intend to groom both my kids into full-time wrestlers and the coaching is helping them in this direction,” he said.

The youngest student who won a medal at the event was seven-year-old Shaurya Kolekar.

“Shaurya joined just six months ago and has demonstrated an amazing ability to grasp various techniques. Most of the students including 19 girls spend nearly four hours daily in practice. Those who have school in the afternoon try to come for the morning batch, which starts at 5.45 am,” said the coach.