The Indian wrestling team was very disappointed for the last few days. Reason…most of the players were not supposed to get visa, but on Wednesday, Sajan Bhanwala did something that had never happened before.
Sajan won a medal in Men’s 77 Kg Greco-Roman style of wrestling. He said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Guardian, “After the visa disappointment, our responsibility had increased a lot. Indian wrestling fraternity wanted to bring joy to the faces of the fans and we are glad that we did this work and successfully done on the mat.”
Sajan said that even three years ago, he would very close to the medal in this championship. But this time that dream come true. He said that in his first bout against Lithuania`s wrestler, he was quite confident to do better because he defeated him when he was in junior category.
Regarding his second bout, Sajan said, “Our coach Kuldeep sir directed me not to get too aggressive against the wrestler from Moldova. He also advised me that the bout should be run for a longer time. But I fought aggressively and I would give so many points in this bout. But I learnt a lot from my mistakes and it was proved very useful against the Kazakh and the Ukrainian wrestler in the next two bouts.”
Sajan said that he had applied the four point techniques on two occasions against the wrestler of Ukraine in a bronze medal bout. He won that bout on applying bigger points twice.
Sajan also won a medal in the Asian under 23 Championship this year and now is very happy to repeat this success on the world stage. He said that four years ago he had become the Asian Junior Champion in the same way.
He was happy that in the same year he won silver in world junior event. Sajan took silver this year in the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov Ranking Tournament and also won a bronze in another ranking tournament in Tunisia.
Sajan belongs to Kashindi village of Sonipat, learning wrestling under the guidance of Om Prakash Dahiya in Kharkhoda. He said “Everything has been given by Dahiya Sir only. He and his team for me made a daily schedule for him and he practiced accordingly.”
Sajan said that he also expresses gratitude to all the coaches of the national team and WFI, who instilled in him the urge to win a medal.
Regarding the next goal, he said that his heartiest wish is to win a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics.