As Anshu Malik lay on the mat holding her left elbow and shoulder after losing against Helen Maroulis in the women’s 57kg final at the World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, her American rival patted her on the back. Though the 20-year-old Indian boxer had lost – India’s first woman to miss out on becoming a world wrestling champion, and the second woman from her country after Sushil Kumar – she had already made history.
No Indian woman had ever reached the summit of the World Wrestling Championships, no one has even come close; Even in the men’s section, only five have made so much progress in the world. The journey, the heartbreak and the setbacks he went through, is a heartwarming story in itself.
The mental agony of defeat in Tokyo in repechage continued. He also suffered physical pain. According to father Dharamveer Malik, he suffered an elbow injury, which he sustained at the tournament in Tokyo, as well as a knee injury in the quarter-finals. So, he says, “this silver is like a gold medal for us.”
“Anshu fought bravely. Despite suffering an elbow injury at the Tokyo Olympics, he trained in the village and then trained at the national camp. We hope his elbow injury doesn’t get worse.”
His mother Manju, who watched the final without blinking an eye, agrees with her husband: “Silver is like gold.” Over the next few days, she will be preparing her favorite sweet, ‘Gond Ke Laddu’. “It’s good for muscle recovery and can be as much as you want,” she says.
confident start
Her opponent in the final, Haroulis, was a big-fish champion in Rio and a bronze medalist in Tokyo. The youngster, who had never faced the seasoned American in her short international career, started off confidently and thwarted attempts to grab the American’s neck. She also survived a close leg attack in the opening exchanges.
Anshu tries to tire his opponent, which acted as a passive play alert to Haroulis. She failed to score and Anshu got the first point of the final. Anshu led 1-0 at the end of the first half.
But the American changed his strategy in another. She tried to grab Anshu’s injured left elbow and managed to score two points within 45 seconds. He then snatched Anshu’s shoulder while scoring two more points. Then came the sucker punch, as he pulled his shoulder all the way to the mat, resulting in a fall for Haroulis.
Coach Jagdish Sheoran, who introduced Anu to wrestling in 2012 at CBSM Sports School in Nidani, expected her to be quick in the second half. “I expected Anshu to be a bit quicker in the second half but the American was quick to attack his left elbow and once he caught it, it was difficult for Anshu to make a comeback. If not for the injury, she could have gotten out of that grip and avoided a fall,” he explained.
But silver shows rapid and decisive progress in its game. It was not just a one-time performance. Last year, Anshu won the World Championships bronze medalist and eventual Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Evelina Nikolova of Bulgaria by defeating two-time European bronze medalist Azerbaijan and European’s Alyona Kolesnik in the Matteo Pelicone Ranking Series in Rome. Bronze medalist Veronika Chumikova.
Sheoran believes that the confidence of this young man of Nidani will skyrocket. “In the last 20 months, she has won six wins by a ten-point margin and the way she won over Linda Morris and Grace Bullen early in her career gave her a lot of confidence. During an 11-6 win over Evelina Nikolova in Rome before Tokyo, Anshu built her tire and then went for a leg and side attack. Wins against such wrestlers make him more confident to try moves he has mastered in practice. The coming months will see a different Anshu,” says Sheoran.
bronze for more
On the other hand, Haryana’s 25-year-old wrestler Sarita Mor won the bronze medal in the women’s 59kg category by defeating Sweden’s Johanna Lindborg 8-2 to become the sixth Indian woman wrestler to win a medal at the World Championships.
“The more world championships our wrestlers win medals, the more hungry they will be for further success. Seeing Anshu creating history here and Sarita winning a bronze medal means our wrestlers are no less adversaries. We will work to rectify the shortcomings. We need more training and these medals will add a lot to our confidence.
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