Vinesh Phogat aims to hit bull's eye before Tokyo Olympics

Getting qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 though World Championships, Vinesh Phogat will give her the hope to seal the medal for the country

All of us including Vinesh Phogat thought that the 2016 Rio Olympics was the last one she took part into. But destiny had some other plans for her. In 2016, when she was facing China’s Sun Yanan in the women’s 49kg quarter-finals, she met with an accident and badly hurt her knee. The injury was so bad that she was taken off the mat on a stretcher, retiring from the tournament. The tears that rolled down were more of a disappointment than the pain she was suffering from. She underwent surgery and was in a wheelchair for several months. No one thought that she will be able to come back to the game and start off things again. She was unsure whether she will be able to make it to the next Olympics or not as she had to learn how to walk first after the surgery.

But now Vinesh Phogat has made a confident comeback and will be seen playing in the World Championships in Kazakhstan where it is going to be a reality check for the player. Vinesh will not only an eye for the glory at the Championship but along with that qualification in the Tokyo Olympics. This is her chance to get back what she had lost in 2016. And this time Phogat has also moved up to the category from 50 kg to 53 kg.

Waiting for twilight

Last five years were a struggling period for Vinesh Phogat as she suffered from many injuries one after another. Therefore, the major concern that the player faced was about fitness. Even in 2018, Vinesh had to withdraw from the world meet at the last moment due to an elbow injury. Such kind of situation really shatters the confidence of the players.

What is remarkable with Vinesh Phogat is the way she has made her comeback from the career-threatening injury. Not only she stood up on her own but also she won nothing but gold. Be it Asian Games or Commonwealth Games, she made up with these wins of the time she lost before suffering from the elbow injury. That injury was again like a setback as she couldn’t participate in last year’s World Championships. She took two months to recover from that injury and was seen practicing again in November last year.

After what the player has suffered in the past, this is now her shot to glory. Getting qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 will give her the hope to seal the medal for the country. Though competition might be tougher in the higher category of her game, she still made five medals and won three golds at Yasar Dogu, Grand Prix of Spain and Poland Open.

For Vinesh, skills are not a problem, but holding off the strong candidates for six minutes is going to be a big challenge that she will have to learn.

Training with male wrestlers

In order to put a strong foot in the Championships, Phogat chose to train herself on the mat against male wrestlers and also against coach Woller Akos’s wife Marianna Sastin, who is a 62 kg wrestler. Indian Women’s team coach Kuldeep Malik saw Phogat’s efforts after Rio Olympics and is confident that she is completely prepared for the World Championships. Though that the rest of the team already landed in Kazakhstan during last two weeks in order to train ahead of the Championships, Phogat stayed back to train at home in Sonepat with her personal coach from Hungary Woller Akos.

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In this big-stage competition, Phogat will be facing stronger and faster opponents where she will need to come up with extra strength than she used in the 50 kg category. But looks like getting trained around male opponents must have given her a different perspective in terms of strength and new techniques to tackle the opponent. Till now no Indian woman has ever won a gold medal at the World Championships and looks like Phogat will be eyeing to end that medal drought for the country.

In a male-dominated society, where a sport like wrestling is considered as a big no-no for women, this girl has climbed off all the boundaries just with one aim of making her country proud and doing what she is best at.

All Vinesh Phogat needs is getting a steady grip of the opponent in order to turn the entire game. The country has hopes in the player as the fans are looking out to script every sport in the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)