Kainchi, Bharandaaz and Jadhav’s legacy

The twin heroes — separated by half a century — couldn’t have been more similar: hard-working, modest backgrounds and uncannily patient for that breed called grappler. Their clinching moves though differed.

Holding on

Dhyan Singh, Sushil’s Railways coach, pointed to the Kainchi (scissors) which his ward used effectively to down his Kazakh opponent. It’s a scorpio-like move in which, as an opponent grabs one of his legs, the wrestler uses the other to bring him down in a double-feet hold. “He didn’t find much success with it in his second round match, but the Kainchi is like a double-edged sword. It was his best defence when he clinched the medal,” Singh says. Another daav (hold) that helped Sushil Kumar was the higly skilled Bhaarandaaz: a take-down with one hand beneath the rival’s abdomen, swiveling him around as the limbs touch down for two points.

Friendly foes

But beyond the technical nuances that brought glory to the two grapples, are stories of two men unique in pursuit of a medal. Unheralded even when they went for their second Olympics, the two share personality traits which mark them out from other flashy wrestlers. “Sushil is a very steady and focused pehelwaan. Never unduly aggressive, with no anger, he uses his speed to win,” remarks Narsingh Yadav, a Railways team-mate and a 84 kg grappler from Mumbai.

Athens was unlucky for Sushil, but at Beijing, just like KD in Helsinki, he made no mistakes when it mattered.

Jagmal Singh, SAI coach at Kandivali, Mumbai, who had earlier trained Sushil for the Asian championships, celebrated at Patiala as wrestling trainees danced the bhangra to loud dholaks. Calling Sushil a simpleton, he said, “He’s very sincere, a quiet chap, who will keep to his room after training, not fool around.”

But never one to hold back training knowledge, Narsingh recalls how Sushil was always ready to share tricks and training methods with everyone, not unlike KD Jadhav.

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