Dronacharya awardee coaches explain why young wrestler Deepak Punia is failing to win big bouts.
Deepak Punia lost to Kazakhstan’s Azamat Dauletbekov in gold medal match of Asian Wrestling Championships last week. UWW
Olympic medal is THE GOAL for any Indian athlete. Not only does it give an elite status of sorts among Indian sports personalities but also puts the individual in the fast lane to stardom and fame. Ask Deepak Punia and he would have felt this every single day after his bout at Tokyo Olympics. Deepak missed out on the medal by a whisker and then saw his fellow wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia, who won silver and bronze respectively, grow in stature and popularity, at a rapid rate.
The 22-year-old Deepak, on the other hand, remains relatively an unknown face outside the wrestling fraternity despite his name being taken in the same breathe as the other star wrestlers. He was in fact touted to be the next big thing in Indian wrestling when he claimed the World Championships silver medal at just 20 in 2019. He missed out on the gold medal bout with an ankle injury.
‘Special talent’
“Deepak is a special talent, there’s no doubt about it,” says 2009 Dronacharya Awardee Satpal Singh, who trained the wrestler at his famed Chatrasaal Akhada until last year. “For his age, he is a very sensible wrestler, whose endurance is often a headache for his rivals as he troubles them in the second half of the bout after wearing them down. In fact, every time we speak of Olympic gold medal hopefuls, Deepak’s name is right there with Bajrang and Ravi because all three of them showed their quality from a young age.”
However, losing out on the 86kg gold medal bout at the recently-concluded Asian Wrestling Championships, where Indian grapplers won 17 medals, slit open old wounds from last season for Deepak, who trains under coach Virender Kumar.
In two contrasting defeats in 2021, Deepak first surrendered an Asian Championship gold medal to a familiar foe Hasan Yazdani (Iran) in Almaty before dramatically conceding a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He was leading the repechage round’s final in Japan 2-1 with 10 seconds to go but the wrestler faltered at the death by conceding three points to San Marino’s Myles Amine.
In Ulaanbaatar last Saturday, the big match pressure was there to haunt him again as he lost to Kazakh Azamat Dauletbekov 6-1 despite a flawless run to the final without conceding a point.
The final hurdle
2006 Dronacharya Awardee Maha Singh Rao, who has coached many famed Indian wrestlers including a brief training stint with Deepak during his cadet days at WFI national camps, pointed out that the young wrestler will soon have the experience on his side to overcome his final jitters.
“He is an exceptional talent as he is surprisingly agile for a heavyweight wrestler. He had his weaknesses through his junior days but he has overcome them through hardwork,” says the senior coach from Guru Hanuman Akhada. “But let’s not forget, that he is still very young and inexperienced and with more big-match experiences like this, he will figure out ways to win a final as well.”
Coach Satpal too is little worries about Deepak faltering at the final hurdle as he opines that the success of the likes of Dahiya and Bajrang will give him the push to stretch his limits and tipped him to win the Asian Games gold medal, along with his colleagues.
“Deepak already knows where he stands in Indian wrestling and that his qualities are no less than Ravi and Bajrang. He is watching them grab those medals that he couldn’t and this will motivate him to win. I believe Deepak, Ravi and Bajrang are going to win the gold medal later this year at the Asian Games,” said the 66-year-old coach, who is fondly called Guru Satpal.
2013 Dronacharya Awardee Raj Singh added that not too much should be read into Deepak’s performance in Mongolia as all Indian wrestlers are yet to give their best performance this season and will not peak before the Asian Games later this year.
“It won’t be right to judge Deepak or any wrestler’s performance at the moment as this was just a beginning of a long season,” said the former WFI general secretary. “All the athletes are aiming to peak at the right time in the season and that is the Asian Games. That was evident from Bajrang’s performance too as he was careful of his injury and preferred conceding the match than risking his knee. A gold medal now won’t mean a thing if they don’t win one at the Asian Games in September.”
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