Haryana grapplers Arun, Pradeep clinch gold

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 11

Pradeep Kumar and Arun Kumar stole the limelight for the hosts with two gold medals at the Cadet Asian Wrestling Championship.

While wrestler Pradeep from Juan village of Sonepat bagged the gold in the greco-roman 50kg category after comfortably defeating Japan’s Takahashi Sanshiro 6-0, Arun from Auchandi village won a hard-fought 7-6 bout in the freestyle 85kg final against Iran’s Seyedabolfazl Hashemijouyba to clinch the yellow metal.

India capped off a superb first day with Nasir Hussain (silver in freestyle 100kg) and two female wrestlers — Annu Devi (silver in freestyle 40kg) and Ankush (bronze in freestyle 38kg) — also finding their names among the medallists.

Pradeep, son of a daily-wage labourer and a class X drop-out, has been steadily climbing up the ladder in the wrestling arena with his power-packed performances in the National Cadet Championships.

Today’s gold medal also ensured his qualification for the World Cadet Championship in Bosnia from August 25-30. “I am a two-time champion in my weight category at the National Cadet tournament. But, this gold will always remain the most cherished one as I defeated a much tougher opponent from Japan,” Pradeep said. The 16-year-old has been training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune since April 2012. He said he got hooked to the sport after watching 2013 Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Rajbir Chikara winning medals at the international events.

“Chikara ji is from my village. I used to listen a lot about him from my coaches. He is a six-time National Games gold medallist. He is the biggest source of inspiration to me,” said Pradeep, whose only aim in life is to provide a better lifestyle to his parents.

Like Pradeep, Arun, too, hails from a poor family. His father works on the farmland to meet their basic daily needs. “I want to make a name in wrestling just like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt,” said Arun, an Asian Championship bronze medallist.

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