Exclusive: Georgia's Dobo Roin who actually trained the Phogats never got his due, says ex-Indian coach Kripa Shankar

India’s women wrestling was put on the map by the sister duo of Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari with the former becoming India’s first-ever women wrestler to compete at the Olympics. Ever since then, there has been no looking back and the pair has inspired several other young women to take up the generally male-dominated sport in the country.

While the sisters won several medals in various international tournaments, they could not manage to clinch a medal in the most prestigious global sporting event, the Olympics Games. It took a while but eventually in 2016, India relished the long-awaited Olympic dream when Rohtak district’s wrestler, Sakshi Malik, clinched a bronze medal in the 58Kg freestyle category at the Rio Games.

In the same event, Geeta and Babita’s cousin, Vinesh Phogat, was expected to bring a medal in her category. However, an unfortunate injury denied her and India a second wrestling Olympic medal.

Two years later, now, Sakshi has struggled to replicate that form of hers, while Vinesh has found ways to tweak her technique which have brought results in her favour.

While Sakshi won a bronze at the Commonwealth Games 2018 and ended her campaign in the ongoing Asian Games 2018 without a medal, Vinesh clinched gold in both the events.

Former Indian wrestler Kripa Shankar Bishnoi spoke to DNA exclusively about Sakshi and Vinesh. He was also India's Women Wrestling Team’s coach between 2009 and 2015. He was a part of the training camp set up ahead of the Rio Games 2016.

One of the most crucial revelations Kripa Shankar made was about a foreign coach who has a huge role to play in Geeta and Babita's career and to an extent, Vinesh and Sakshi's too. When Kripa Shankar was a part of the Indian coaching team, he had a constant support in Georgia's Dobo Roin. 

A 33-year-old Kripa Shankar in 2003 (Image-Facebook)

Kripa Shankar also spoke about the state of women’s wrestling in India, the need for the federation to appoint a foreign coach and more:

Since you have trained Sakshi Malik and other India’s ace women wrestlers since their sub-junior days, what do you have to say about Sakshi’s sudden downfall post-Rio Games?

I don’t think I would call this phase a downfall. A lot of people have gone to an extent where they have blamed her marriage for it. But, that’s not true. Regarding the semi-final fight she lost, it was a roller-coaster ride for both the wrestlers. While Sakshi trailed for most of the times, she grabbed a late lead with about five seconds left in the fight.

Unfortunately, Aisuluu Tynybekova used Sakshi’s trick from their Rio fight. The Kyrgyzstan wrestler avenged her Rio loss when she took advantage and pushed Sakshi out of the mat to earn the match-winning two points. Sakshi got too defensive but I don’t think there has been a vast change in her technique. But, according to me, she has succumbed to the life post-Rio success. Now that she has become a part of the glamour part of the sports world, it has affected her performance. She clearly has been struggling to handle the pressure that comes along the limelight.

What do you have to say about Vinesh Phogat’s stellar performances this year?

Vinesh was considered a sure-shot gold medal contender even at the Rio Olympics. Had she won that, this Asian Games gold would have only been an addition to it. Sadly, she screwed up her chances at Rio with the wrong method she used for losing weight. She chose to dehydrate her body and fast for longer hours which affected her stamina. When a wrestler goes about with this weight-losing method, it only leads to such calf-muscle related injuries most of the times. 

However, Vinesh has made an alteration in this aspect this time and the positive result is in front of us today. There was another mistake she had been making; she committed that in Rio and even continued to do so at the Pro-Wrestling League: in the first three minutes of the fight, Vinesh was defensive. In the next three minutes, she continued to remain defensive and she attacked the opponent only in the final two minutes. But, by then she would already be trailing and a comeback is never easy.

Vinesh Phogat clinches gold at 2018 Asian Games (PTI)

But now, right from the beginning she is aggressive and looks to take a lead early in the fight. That allows her to be defensive towards the end. Her early leads mean, she pushes her opponent under pressure quite soon in the game. As the fight goes on, the opponent tends to make mistakes, the same ones which Vinesh had made at the Rio Games.

Moreover, this time at the Asian Games, Vinesh was well aware of her opponents and her strategy of going all guns blazing from the start worked well in her favour. 

Are the new wrestling rules the reason behind the failure of several Indian wrestlers at the Asian Games 2018?

Yes. Our wrestlers are still not used to these rules and that did make a lot of difference in our final results. The United World Wrestling Federation announced new rules in September 2017 saying those rules would be implemented from January 1, 2018. We had our National Wrestling championships in Oct-Nov 2017 and that was a brilliant chance for our wrestlers to play under the new rules keeping in mind Commonwealth and Asian Games next year.

However, while the rules immediately were implemented by other global bodies, Indian Federation for some reason chose to implement them only in January.

With the new rules, the likes of Sakshi Malik and Sushil Kumar were forced to change their weight category. According to the old rules, the wrestlers could make their final weight loss on the match's eve; which meant they had a whole 16 or 17 hours for their recovery. For normal people like us, this will seem a tedious thing but for wrestlers, an overnight weight loss or gain is a very usual job. 

But, the new rules forced the match to begin just two hours after the wrestlers alter their weight and there is no time for them to settle down with the same. 

Coach Kripa Shankar

Tell us about Indian women’s wrestling team’s bench strength.

I’m not sure if our National Wrestling Federation has been working towards it but Indian Railways' wrestling department are always on their toes. Even out of the current team, half of the wrestlers belong to the Railways. They conduct camps in places like Mhow, Nainital, New Delhi. They already have a few wrestlers lined up behind the likes of Sakshi, Vinesh and Babita - Ritu Phogat, Seema, Anshu Tomar and Pooja to name a few.

Are the anti-doping tests done regularly in the Indian camp?

National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has its office in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, and their officials make quite a few unexpected visits to our national camps and with the help of the present coaches, all the players are tested. This happens apart from the regular testing that takes place before any particular international event.

Yogeshwar Dutt earlier suggested that Indian wrestling team needs a foreign coach. Do you agree with him?

Yes, I totally agree with him. The Indian national coaches have not been conducting regular intensive training. Since the federation picks local coaches for the national camps, the trainers have their house usually nearby and their main aim for the day is finishing the training soon and head back home in the evening. Moreover, the Indian coaches are not even paid properly, so they have to concentrate on their personal businesses too in order to run their families comfortably.  But, if we bring a foreign coach, he will have no other task but to the only train, the wrestlers and the continuity in the training will, in turn, will be good for the team. 

There is another issue: The Indian Wrestling Federation never conducts any proper course for their trainers to educate them about the nature of their role. Even if they conduct a course, it is a very small one of just four or five days and that is obviously not enough to understand everything about coaching the wrestlers. When a delegate from the United Wrestling Federation comes, the Indian federation ensured the former is bribed to get a certificate for their Indian trainer.

Did we ever have a foreign coach in the past who made a difference?

Of course, but nobody, including the women wrestlers, ever speak about him. When I was with the Indian team as their assistant coach, wrestlers like Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari was in the sub-junior level and she trained in the camp in Pune with me. At an age of 15 or 16, she along with a few more won the Asian Championships held in India. From 2012 to 2015, I coached them without any break and with me, there was a foreign coach who should be credited for these girls' success today - Georgia's Dobo Roin. 

He stuck with them for the years. He made them train strictly and consistently and that was one of the reasons why these female Indian wrestlers have reached so high in their career.