Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are The New Indian Wrestling Superstars

Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat with the winning of historic medals attained superstardom but found it difficult grappling for the right thing as Indian wrestling federation introduced the contract system. The national federation for wrestling decided to explore a contract system for the leading 150 wrestlers in India, with the remark that sports now needs professionalization.

After a historic gold medal win by Bajrang and Vinesh earlier this year it all went meticulously as the remuneration was just a contract fees. When it comes to Olympics, 2018 it was only Sushil Kumar who has won 2 gold medals for India and the second name is Sakshi Malik as she came out to be India’s first and only woman to grab a gold medal at Olympics. They both underperformed in the Olympics games held in 2018. Eyeing to the year 2019, in which the World Championship will be held so there is a chance to book Olympic tickets as it will tell if the two gold medalists can add a pride to Indian wrestling. Bajrang and Vinesh winning gold at the Jakarta Games renders huge significance as the Commonwealth Games may not signify a best ground to prove but they performed in the Asian bloc which is meant to be a powerhouse of this sport. Vinesh began her journey in Jakarta Olympics with a win cum revenge over the Chinese women wrestler Yanan Sun as against her Vinesh suffered a knee injury which was career threatening that ended campaign of Rio Olympics in grievous pain. Further in the next match she defeated Korea’s Hyungjoo Kim by four-point throw bringing out technical superiority. The semifinal finished within 75 seconds and she stepped in the final ending up winning gold, over riding Japan’s Yuki Irie. While Bajrang won gold and ended the year as the world’s number one player in 65kg category, though suffered an elbow injury which pushed his efforts back slightly. The other Phogats Sangeeta, Babita, Ritu and Geeta didn’t make up much this year and they didn’t appear for Asian Games trials too. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has recently earned applaud for increasing financial stability in the sports by making out a deal with Tata Motors. Tata Motors’ will have a three-year deal acting the Indian wrestling’s principal sponsor so as to support the development of this sport at every level. On the basis of this WFI offered a centrally made contract to leading 150 grapplers. The category features top A Grade, which are offered Rs. 30 lakhs remuneration as support, which includes only Bajrang, Vinesh, Pooja, Sushil and Sakshi.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.news18.com/news/sports/bajrang-vinesh-emerge-new-superstars-of-indian-wrestling-in-2018-1983331.html