His father worked as a school watchman and his mother used to provide water to the students. The role of a father continued even throughout the COVID epidemic. But his true wish is to see his son, Suraj Vashisht, become a great man, and Suraj recently took the first step in that direction by taking home the gold in the World Cadet Wrestling competition.
Suraj won the gold in the Greco-Roman wrestling style, but before this, India had never won gold in this competition in the last 32 years. An Indian wrestler, Pappu Yadav, achieved this feat 32 years ago.
Suraj defeated the Japanese wrestler with a score of 5-1 and the Uzbekistan wrestler with a score of 7-4 in the competition. He then proved his talent by defeating the Azerbaijani wrestler in the semi-finals by technical superiority and then in the final by defeating the Russian wrestler 9-0.
Suraj lives in a village named Rithal in the Rohtak district of Haryana and is doing his class X studies at an open institution. He lives in Guru Meher Singh Akhada, about 25 km away from his residence. This is his workplace where he practices wrestling every morning and every night.
Suraj says that he has been practicing in this arena for the last six years, and he got a chance to participate in Asian Cadet Wrestling for the first time in Kyrgyzstan. But he lost the match against an Uzbek wrestler and could not win any medals.
At that time, the coach of the Akhada, Ranbir Singh Dhaka, took the responsibility of a psychologist very well and advised Suraj not to get discouraged and to continue preparing for future competitions.
Suraj claims that, in addition to Ranbir Sir, the coaches at the national camp, Shamsher, Indrajit, and Rajveer, guided him through his mistakes and taught him how to avoid repeating them in the future.
Suraj learned from his mistakes and won gold at World Cadet Wrestling this time. Suraj says that his wish is to remain at his best and to become the world champion in the senior category in the future.
Suraj’s discipline, according to coach Ranbir Singh Dhaka, is the secret to his success. He belongs to a very poor family, and they have a desire to reach the top. Sandeep, Kuldeep, and Jasvir, the senior wrestlers of the Akhada, help Suraj by providing a healthy diet.
His family is suffering through a period of acute financial trouble. According to Ranbir Singh, if a healthy diet is set up for this wrestler, he has the ability to become a successful wrestler in the future.