Tribune Information Service
New Delhi, August 4
There have been many smiling faces in the principle wrestling corridor of the Chhatrasal Stadium on Wednesday. Ravi Dahiya, a Chhatrasal trainee, was up towards Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev within the semifinals of the 57 kg class. A win would erase all of the dangerous press that the stadium, thought-about because the cradle of Indian wrestling, acquired due to the Sagar Dhankar homicide case through which two-time Olympics medallist Sushil Kumar is the principle accused.
Ravi’s win, which ensured that he would return with a minimum of a silver medal, got here as a balm for the 100-odd trainees, a few of whom watched the stay motion on tv. ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Chhatrasal Stadium ki jai’ rang loudly because the trainees and coaches broke into their victory dance. Ravi turned solely the third Chhatrasal trainee to medal on the Olympics, after Sushil and Yogeshwar Dutt.
Together with the euphoria, there was a way of reduction throughout the faces and a realisation that the stadium will return to the sports activities pages after hitting notoriety with the crime reporters.
“Quite a lot of wrestlers left or stayed out due to the incident,” mentioned 19-year-old Vishant Chillar, who hails from Barahi village in Bahadurgarh district. “This win was wanted to place an finish to all of the negativity that has surrounded us ever for the reason that case,” he added.
By the way, the tv on which the group watched Ravi create historical past was put in on the behest of Sushil in order that the trainees may get to observe bouts of Indian wrestlers.
“Due to the information channels, folks began to imagine that we had been all gangsters,” mentioned coach Jaiveer Dahiya. “The outdated notion returned that wrestlers had been dangerous folks. They confirmed pehelwanji (Sushil) as some type of a villain,” he added.
“Now the identical set of individuals can be happy with this akhada as a wrestler has received an enormous Olympics medal. It’s a large reduction. I can’t let you know how completely satisfied each certainly one of us is at present,” he added.
Past all of the commotion and sitting quietly within the nook was Arun Kumar, who mentors Ravi. Arun and Ravi are from the identical village, Nahri, in Haryana’s Sonepat district. Arun had taken Ravi beneath his wings when he joined the akhada. Arun, who supported Ravi when many gave up on the younger wrestler, had a quiet phrase with the 23-year-old over the cellphone.
“All these years of onerous work have borne fruit,” Arun mentioned. “Everybody was elevating questions as Ravi was unable to carry out. He had an iron deficiency which was retaining him again,” he added.
“We acquired him medical help after which he beat Amit Kumar (2013 World Championships silver medallist) within the trials in 2017. He has not seemed again since then,” he added.
