Anshu Malik overcomes fears to e-book Tokyo-berth

In his youthful days, Dharamveer Malik would often characteristic within the Indian junior wrestling groups. He competed on the 76 kg class on the World Cadet Championship in 1995, however was compelled out of the game as a result of a knee damage.
That would nonetheless, not be the final time a member of the Malik-household would grapple at a global stage. On Saturday, Dharamveer’s 19-year-old daughter Anshu grew to become the fifth Indian wrestler to seal a Tokyo Olympics quota on the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
“The day Anshu started wrestling, the dream was always to compete at the Olympics. This is just one of the many steps to winning an Olympic medal,” 45-year-old Dharaveer says to The Indian Express.
“She had injured her back last month (during the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome) so she will be a bit relieved now that she has the quota. But a new journey starts for her today.”
A local of the Nidani village in Jind district of Haryana – a village well-known for a sports activities college that has produced quite a few nationwide and worldwide boxers and wrestlers – Anshu, who competes within the 57kg occasion, was initially drawn in the direction of tutorial endeavours.
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While her brother Shubham had already been coaching as a wrestler, Dharamveer urged her to pursue the game as properly. Four years later, in 2016, she’d go on to win a silver medal on the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship, together with a bronze on the Cadet-level continental occasion in the identical yr.
By 2017, she was the World Cadet Champion – a title her coach Jagdish Sheoran asserts was an necessary milestone in her profession.
“She was still academically inclined. She would learn techniques quickly, but spent most of her time studying,” Sheoran remembers. “When she won that title though, her focus shifted. She started to spend more time in training. Around six hours daily.”
A Junior Asian title adopted in 2019, after which got here her first senior nationwide title earlier this yr. She scored wins over World Championship bronze medallist and compatriot Pooja Dhanda, twice, 2019 World Champion Linda Morais, two-time European Champion Grace Bullen of Norway and World Championship bronze medallist Evelina Nikolova.
Anshu Malik with coach Jagdish Sheoran
Wins like these got here on account of creating a extra all-round strategy to her fashion in coaching.
“Like any young wrestler, she’d only think about attacking,” nationwide coach Kuldeep Malik had mentioned to this newspaper in an earlier interview.
“We had to spend a lot of time on her defense to stop her from losing points on leg attacks. She’s a quick learner, but her greatest advantage is that she has a fearless approach to matches.”
There had been just a few extra classes in retailer for her shortly earlier than she took the journey to Almaty. After her damage in Rome, she travelled again to her village to recuperate. But her coach used the break as a possibility to go over ways together with her.
“It also gave us some time to make her understand some of her mistakes, like wrestling passively after taking a lead. It helped her in the trials last month,” Sheoran says.
“Like any wrestler, she had a fear of getting injured again or aggravating the injury but she realised that getting a chance to wrestle in the Olympics is rare. But the real work will begin now.”
In Tokyo, the sphere of opponents can be larger than something she’s confronted up to now. The likes of reigning World Champion Risako Kawai of Japan, World Championship silver medallist Rong Ningning of China, and two-time World bronze medallist Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus are the highest contenders for a medal within the 57kg class. Sheoran believes that Anshu must grasp some extra strikes to have a shot on the medal in Tokyo.
“Now that she has earned the quota, the next task will be to study all the possible opponents. She’s a quick learner, but we’ll have to add some variations to her style to give her a chance against some of the world’s best,” explains Sheoran.
At residence, Anshu’s mom Manju has already ready the grappler’s favorite feast.
“She loves desi ghee poodas and gond ke laddu. She took two boxes with her to Almaty,” she explains. “If she wins an Olympic medal, we might distribute those sweets in the entire village.”