Becomes the first Indian in 42 years to win a freestyle medal at the wrestling world championships.
Ramesh Kumar was always considered a prodigious wrestler, but a medal at the world level eluded him all these years. A spate of injuries in the run up to last year’s Olympic Games meant he was not in the reckoning and Sushil Kumar’s bronze in the 66 kg category at Beijing became the success story of Indian wrestling.
But late on Wednesday, the 27-year-old added a chapter to what is being seen as the revival of the sport in the country, as he became the first Indian in 42 years to win a freestyle medal at the world championships. Ramesh beat Alexandr Burca of Moldova in the 74kg category to win a bronze, in Herning, Denmark. India had last won a silver medal at the world meet through Vishambhar Singh way back in 1967.
Finally, it was Ramesh’s turn to overshadow Sushil, who finished fifth in his
category.
Ramesh rallied from 0-3 down against Burca to level scores at 7-7 and eventually won on the basis of technical points as he had clinched five points in the final round to his opponent’s four.
“Ramesh has been one of our top wrestlers for a number of years. He has won medals at junior world championships and also at senior Asian and Commonwealth meets, but was unable to do so at the world level. With this win, he has proved that he is a top level wrestler,” said Rohtas Singh Dahiya, Ramesh’s coach at Railways, and himself an Arjuna awardee.
Kumar had earlier in the meet defeated Dustin Schlatter of the US (3-2), Michael Gruney of Britain (4-2) and Kiril Terziev of Bulgaria (7-4) before losing out on an opportunity to fight for a gold medal after his 0-5 loss to Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev of Azerbaijan.
“Ramesh is one of the youngest ever to be conferred the Arjuna award. I remember he was not even 20 when he was given the award in 2001. He won the Commonwealth Games gold at Manchester a year later,” added Dahiya, who is also his
senior at the Captain Chand Roop akhada in Delhi.
“Ramesh is an extremely talented wrestler and has great attacking power. Gold in the 1997 School Boys meet in New Delhi was the first time we saw his capability. I am sure he will bring glory to India in the coming years,” Dahiya signed off.
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