Opinion History,not in the making
It is just that the akhadas look down on the discipline. For them the daav-pench in freestyle is the purest form of combat.
Like all Greco-Roman wrestlers,Sandeep Tulsi Yadav drifted into the discipline after failing to make the cut in the freestyle arena. And this is a major stumbling block for the discipline to flourish the way freestyle has been. It is not as if India lacks history in the discipline. In both the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Games,the country’s sole representatives in wrestling were Pappu Yadav (48kg) and Gurvinder (63kg) respectively. Both were from the Greco stables and not from the revered freestyle school.
It is just that the akhadas look down on the discipline. For them the daav-pench in freestyle is the purest form of combat. Limiting a wrestler to only holding moves above the waist is plain ugly to watch,they say.
With the akhadas,the nurseries that feed the sport,having no culture to support the discipline,the avenues for fresh recruits are limited only to grapplers who choose to switch over. What further compounds the problem is the fact that Greco-Roman,which is the primary discipline in Europe,is not part of the National School Games curriculum.
For many years,GR coaches including Emzar Makhardze,the foreign expert attached with the Indian team,had requested Wrestling Federation of India officials to provide them new cadets and junior wrestlers who haven’t been conditioned by freestyle moves. Nothing came of it,but Sandeep’s bronze in the 66kg category has given fresh impetus to this long-standing complaint.
The wrestling world’s amazement at Sandeep’s achievement – coaches all over the world are aware of where Indians stand in the GR hierarchy and how new faces are usually converts from freestyle nurseries – that Emzar,who is currently in Georgia,received calls from the Russian coaches congratulating him for the achievement.
Optimism may be running high,but it will take more than just pushing and nudging the federation to change how the Greco-Roman discipline is conducted in India. Previously it was said that the GR stable lacked a big medal,and that its coming would bring about the sort of change that Sushil Kumar’s bronze medal at the Beijing Games did to wrestling as a sport. That big medal has come. What next?
Vinayak is a principal correspondent based in New Delhi
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