E-Paper
‘There is a notion in urban areas that wrestlers lack brains’
HISAR : After KD Jadhav’s bronze at the 1952 Olympics, Uday Chand brought laurels with a bronze at the 1961 World Championships, another first for the country. He
HISAR : After KD Jadhav’s bronze at the 1952 Olympics, Uday Chand brought laurels with a bronze at the 1961 World Championships, another first for the country. He competed in three Olympics (1960, 64, 68) and was the first wrestler to get the Arjuna Award in 1961. The 81-year-old also remained unbeaten till his last nationals in 1970, a record which stands. Excerpts from an interview:
How many medals do you expect from wrestling at the Rio Olympics?
In the last 10 years, Indian wrestling has touched great heights, and I am sure they will better the London Games performance. I am expecting at least three medals, including one from the girls.
Yogeshwar Dutt is experienced and going by form he is the best bet.
Sushil Kumar would have given us a medal, but Narsingh Yadav is also doing well. He won bronze at last year’s World Championships and we can expect a medal from him. Our girls are also doing well at the international stage, so I am expecting at least one medal from them. What’s the difference between today and when you were competing? There has been manifold improvement, and the results are evident. In our time, we were good till the continental level, but couldn’t taste much success at the world arena. Today, see the number of medals we are winning at the World Championships. The world’s best are wary of Indian wrestlers because they know it could be anybody’s game.
Is this because the current crop trains harder?
As far as commitment and dedication go, we were no less. But the youngsters have improved in technique and are far superior to us in adapting to new methods. The amount of foreign exposure they are getting and the long national camps are behind their better performance.
Even now wrestling is more popular in the rural areas with few takers in the cities. Can we see a change in the future?
Wrestling is a rural sport and there is a notion that wrestlers lack brains. Because of certain elements the sport got associated with goons and earned a bad name, so parents in cities didn’t encourage kids to join wrestling. Now things are different. The amount of intelligence required to excel in wrestling is no less than in any other modern sport. During my stint as coach at the Haryana Agriculture University (in Hisar) I trained students pursuing higher studies and they did well in the sport too. For the sport to get popular, we need takers in the cities.
