With Games postponed, Dhanda eyes fresh opportunity

The final two years have seen excessive swings in Pooja Dhanda’s profession. The Haryana wrestler had capped 2018 with a 57kg bronze on the World Championships in Budapest following silver on the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

And simply when her confidence was sky excessive, she suffered shoulder and knee accidents in 2019, which spoilt her probability of incomes a berth within the nationwide squad for the continental Olympic qualifiers. With a number of the finest grapplers in her class, Dhanda misplaced to Anshul Malik within the nationwide trials for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in January this yr. And, with it her hopes of going to Tokyo had been all however over.

But the postponement of the Games to subsequent yr has rekindled her hopes of creating the reduce for Tokyo. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will more than likely maintain contemporary trials subsequent yr to pick out the very best staff for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers, which too had been postponed this yr within the aftermath of the pandemic.

“The cancellation of the international calendar and shifting of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 has given me one more chance to stay in the race. The selection process will start again. It will be one big opportunity for me to bounce back,” says Dhanda.

On the forgettable 2019 when she suffered a spate of accidents, Dhanda says, “It was a shoulder injury I suffered during the World Championships in 2018 which flared up. Then it was the knee. So, it became difficult to make much progress. I was just busy undergoing rehab last year. It came as a huge setback in pre-Olympic year.

“You have to be super fit, otherwise it’s difficult to make the cut as domestic competitions are getting tough,” the 25-year-old says of her loss to Malik within the trials.

Dhanda says sports activities actions have resumed in her hometown Hisar however she isn’t eager on out of doors coaching because the “situation is not conducive”. “The best place to train right now is home. I’m only doing basic fitness and weight training.”

While some wrestlers might have began coaching on the mat, Dhanda says she isn’t eager. “I don’t want to train with local wrestlers who I am not sure have maintained social distancing.”

She says it would take 6-Eight weeks to tune up her physique to be prepared for observe on the mat. “I want to go slow as there is no competition this year. My focus is to stay healthy and prepare for the challenging domestic trials next year.”