“You should have seen her the night before. She didn’t have a morsel to eat, didn’t even sip water… had her sauna suit on, did a lot of cardio and slept on an empty stomach. Woke up the next morning, and repeated the cycle.”
Jitender Yadav, the chief coach of India’s women’s wrestling team, is describing Vinesh Phogat’s intense battle before the big bout – reducing her weight to stay within the permissible limits. Two weeks ago, the wrestler who competes in the 53kg weight class was 5kgs over. Two days before her first match, on Tuesday, she weighed 3kgs more.
With some maniacal last-minute exercises and staying off food and liquids totally – as wrestlers commonly do before weigh-ins – Vinesh made weight. But it left her a little disoriented before her opening bout of the World Championships in Belgrade against Mongolia’s Khulan Batkhuyag. “Her recovery after the weight cutting wasn’t swift, unfortunately,” Jitender tells The Indian Express from Belgrade about the 28-year-old. “That was the only reason she lost that match. Today, the recovery was better and you saw how she fought like a beast.”
If Vinesh was shockingly bullied into submission by Batkhuyag on Tuesday, ‘beast’ felt the right word to describe her performance in the repechage and bronze medal play-offs on Wednesday, as she became the first Indian woman to win two World Championship medals. Vinesh defeated fourth-seed Jonna Malmgren 8-0 for her second World Championship bronze after 2019.
Perhaps she was still reeling from Tuesday’s defeat, but Vinesh did not smile or celebrate after she steamrolled her Swedish opponent until Jitender lifted her on his shoulders and carried her out of the arena. Even then, she seemed more relieved than happy.
“After all these years, 10 years of competing at the senior level, I have just one medal at Worlds. I can’t be satisfied with that,” Vinesh had said before her event. “A medal would also give me some confidence.”
In essence, the bronze is about that – gaining some confidence. It’s something Vinesh, who had to piece together her career that was plagued with injuries and personal struggles post-Tokyo, has spoken about repeatedly – winning the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games was ‘reassuring’; the gold in Birmingham was a ‘confidence booster’; days later, the win over newcomer Antim Panghal in the trials for the World Championship showed she was ‘headed in the right direction’.
The fact that she finished on the podium despite not being at her best would be even more reassuring for Vinesh. It isn’t just about the results – in Belgrade, she was the favourite to win the gold medal after Japan’s Akari Fujinami withdrew. “It’s about how she is winning the bouts as well,” Jitender says. “Vinesh isn’t relying only on her strength. She is being smart in the way she’s collecting points; knows when to hold the opponent, when to counter-attack and also has been timing her own attacks well.”
Two recent bouts illustrate these points. Against Malmgren on Wednesday, she waited patiently for her opponent to make the move and go for the single-leg takedown. Vinesh evaded the attack and, in a swift counter, went behind her opponent to score a takedown of her own. In the second takedown, it wasn’t just brute force, but the explosive energy – lifting her like a barrel and throwing her on the mat in one quick motion – that surprised Malmgren.
This pattern was seen even during the selection trials for the World Championships, when Vinesh defeated U-20 World Champion Antim, a new challenger in the 53kg category. Vinesh, after the trial, had spoken about the effect of little turnaround time between events on her recovery and its possible impact on the outcome of the Worlds.
“I couldn’t do heavyweight training after the CWG because it leads to muscle building and thus, weight gain. So, I focussed just on explosive strength and speed,” she had said. “My body has been demanding some rest but that’s not been possible. I couldn’t have skipped the World’s because all the hard work and the high-intensity training in the last six months was just for this. When I stop competing, I want to look back fondly at the medals I have won at the World Championships.”
Who knows, the colour of the medal would’ve been different if there was enough time for rest and recovery between the CWG and the World’s, rather than sandwiching selection trials in between where instead of the usual 55kg allowance (+2) conceded in Indian trials, she had to cut an extra kilo to 54kg as mandated.
Jitender says their focus now will be to ensure Vinesh’s weight stays as close as possible to her weight category so she doesn’t have to reduce a lot before an event. “Since recovery is an issue, this is one solution for it,” he says. “But this result gives us a lot of confidence. After all the struggles she has gone through following the Olympics, Vinesh is back on track.”
Iranian starlet pitted against Israeli opponent
Iran’s Amirmohammad Yazdanicherati, a World Championship silver medallist, finds himself in a sticky situation at the Worlds. The 22-year-old was drawn against Israel’s Joshua Stuart in the opening round of the 70kg weight class in Belgrade. They are supposed to face off on Thursday. But Iran’s policy of not competing against athletes from Israel means Yazdanicherati could be forced to forfeit the bout, thus ending his hopes of reaching the final.
India’s Naveen, who will also compete in the 70kg class, has been pitted against the Asian Champion from Japan, Taishi Narikuni. If he manages to get past the tough opening round, the CWG champion will be up against Asian bronze medallist Syrbaz Talgat of Kazakhstan.
Vinesh Phogat with coach Jitender with the bronze medal. 
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