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This Phogat is a boxer with the mind of a wrestler

She draws inspiration from the way Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia fight, but uses it not on the mat, but inside a ring.

Neeraj Phogat won gold in the 57kg category at the India Open on Saturday, with unexpected wins against two big names—Sonia Chahal and Manisha Moun—both of whom had excelled at the World Boxing Championships at home in November. Chahal had won silver, and Moun had beaten reigning world champion, Dina Zholaman of Kazakhstan.

What adds more punch to Neeraj’s title win is that this was her first competition in this weight class. She has been trying out different categories, to find one that suits her natural abilities. She has won the national championships in both 51kg and 60kg, and has been on the fringes of the national team since 2017. This March, after losing the 60kg trials for the Asian Championships to veteran Sarita Devi, Neeraj decided to drop down to 57 and stick with it, with the aim of qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.

Throughout this journey, wrestling has been a constant companion. She belongs to a wrestling family from a village in Charkhi Dadri, just an hour’s drive from India’s centre of boxing, Bhiwani. Her elder brother Hitesh, a wrestler, had first stab at the life of a sportsman, but saw his career cut short by two knee surgeries. By then, Neeraj had started dabbling with boxing at the local ring in Charkhi Dadri town.

“My brother was a good wrestler, but after injuries he could not continue,” Neeraj says. “My father, who is a farmer, could not have managed finances if both of us wanted to be in sports, so my brother stopped wrestling and started to help me.”

Neeraj grew up watching her brother train in the earthen akhadas of her village, but was not drawn to the idea of fighting on dirt. Nor was she interested in getting her ears mangled, the hallmark of wrestlers worldwide.

“But there are so many from my family into wrestling, I have grown up listening to them and watching them,” she says.

Boxing happened by chance to Neeraj when an army coach came to her college and introduced the sport. “I took it up because I wanted to pick up some sport, but not wrestling,” she says.

Hitesh channelled his energy into helping Neeraj, and took her to Bhiwani, where she joined the Captain Hawa Singh Academy.

“We rent a house there, and my brother is always there for me,” Neeraj says. “He takes care of my practice, food…makes sure I get enough sleep…everything. He is there at training, and he is there at tournaments, I could not have done this without him.”

Neeraj may not have wanted to be a wrestler herself, but she keenly follows the sport with her brother. “He makes me watch wrestling bouts to inspire me,” she says.

“Bajrang Punia fights till his last breath. Yogeshwar (Dutt) showed such defence in the 2014 Asian Games final, held on to a single point lead to win gold. The mental approach is the same in any sport, and these wrestling bouts teach me a lot in that respect. I draw my motivation from wrestling.”

But there is one physical aspect of wrestling that Neeraj says she has adapted for her sport, and that’s the way wrestlers train for endurance. “In wrestling I feel you need more stamina,” she says. “It’s more difficult than boxing. My brother has worked a lot with me on that. Sometimes I used to cry, but then I have no hard feelings about it.”

First Published:
May 25, 2019 22:18 IST

Source: HindustanTimes