After moving away from home, Honey Pal says medal will be special feeling for parents

With his father Shingara Singh working as patwari in Baba Bakala tehsil in Amritsar district; Singh would watch village dangals apart from playing hockey at his village in his childhood. After shifting to Zirakpur in 2009, Singh would train in freestyle category and won his first medal at the national level in the form of a bronze medal in U-14 35 Kg category in the School National games at Delhi.

The youngster won two more bronze medals in the School National Games in 2013 and 2016 respectively before he decided to shift to opt for Greco-Roman wrestling. The shift also came six months after he suffered a career-threatening knee injury and underwent an operation in 2017. The same year saw him winning the bronze medal in 67 Kg in School National Games before he emerged as the national champion in 63 Kg category in the Sub-Junior Nationals held in Andhra Pradesh.

Singh also competed in the World Sub-Junior Wrestling Championships in Greece in 2017, where his campaign ended early. The youngster won the bronze medal in 67 Kg category in Junior National Wrestling Championship at Jaipur in 2018 before reaching the semi-finals in the 67 Kg category in the Senior Nationals Wrestling Championship. Last year, Singh emerged as the 67 Kg champion in Khelo India Games before winning the gold medal in 63 Kg category in All India Inter-University Championship, Hisar.

“I had always seen wrestlers train in freestyle events and that’s why I opted to compete in freestyle. Winning the bronze medal at School National games meant that I was eager to perform at the sub-junior and junior level in wrestling federation of India events too. When I suffered the knee injury in 2017, coach RS Kundu told me to make a change to Greco-Roman. Initially, I would watch videos of Russian wrestlers apart from Indian wrestlers like Prabhpal Singh and Gurpreet Singh to completely understand the moves. Becoming the champion in Sub-Junior nationals in 2017 boosted my confidence a lot. Even though I missed winning a medal in senior nationals in 2018 and last year, reaching the semi-finals made me believe that I can excel at the senior level too. My next aim will be to win a medal in the senior nationals,” shared Singh who is a student of BA-I at Sant Baba Bhag Singh University, Hoshiarpur.

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Coach RS Kundu, who has been training freestyle as well Greco-Roman wrestlers at his akhada believes that Singh has improved a lot in recent years and his biggest strength has been his mental strength. “Honey Pal was a good wrestler in Freestyle category too but his main problem was that he could not score on leg attacks as well defending leg attacks. When he suffered the injury, it gave us time to think about making a change. Initially, I would make him watch the feet movement of Greco-Roman wrestlers and he has spent a lot of time on the basics of the technique. His biggest strength has been his mental strength and he needs to add more stamina in the coming years to excel at the senior level,” shared Kundu.