Junior world champion Antim Panghal ready to ace trials for senior Worlds

Wrestling is a sport where instances of fast forwarding are rare. It could change if India’s newly minted U-20 women’s world champion Antim Panghal makes.

That significant jump to clinch a berth for next month’s senior World Championships starting in Belgrade, Serbia on September 10.

Antim, 17, became the first Indian woman to win gold in the U-20 World Championships, scoring an 8-0 win over Atlyn Shagayeva in the 53kg final in Sofia, Bulgaria on Friday. She is back in training at the Babba Lal Das Wrestling Academy in Hissar under her coach Vikash Bhardwaj, who says she is ready for the Worlds trials at the SAI regional centre in Lucknow on August 29.

“Sapne bade hain aur un sapno ke liye saari mehnat ho rahi hai (we have big dreams and are working hard to realise them),” Bhardwaj said on Tuesday after putting Antim through a three-hour training session.

“She is so dedicated; she has not missed a single training session in the last five years. Our targets include making the squad for the Worlds, Asian Games, and the Paris Olympics,” he said.

“Each day before training, I remind her of the Paris Olympics mission. She says she will stop competing only after achieving the highest success (an Olympic medal).” He is disappointed that Antim lost to Vinesh Phogat in the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games, with the scores tied 3-all after leading 3-1 against the Asian Games champion. Vinesh won gold in Birmingham.

Antim is the youngest of four daughters of farmer Ram Niwas and Krishna Kumari in Bhagana village in Haryana’s Hissar. Her parents named her Antim (last one) because they didn’t want another daughter, showing a bias for the male child.

The young wrestler uses a parallel leg attack as a key weapon. “It is a natural technique for Antim to defend,” says Bhardwaj. He is confident his ward will be better prepared in the trials this time.

“It still hurts me and Antim,” he says of the defeat in the earlier trials. “I am confident it won’t happen again.”

Antim too is confident. “The gold I won in Bulgaria has boosted my confidence; I am ready to give my best at the trials,” she says. “My goal is to make the podium at Paris, and before that to win medals at the Asian Games and World Championships.”

It was her elder sister, a kabbadi player, who advised Antim to take up wrestling as the prospects were better. “My sister suggested, but I didn’t realise how big the wrestling world was and how far one could go,” Antim says.

Antim has been a consistent performer. She won bronze in the U-15 Asian championships in 2019 and silver at the U23 Asian Championships after a string of medals at domestic level.

In Bulgaria, Antim outplayed Germany’s U-20 European champion Amory Andrich 11-0 in the first round and pinned Japan’s Ayaka Kimura in the quarters. In the semis, she beat Nataliia Klivchutska of Ukraine via technical superiority.

“In the final, I was pretty sure of winning so I chose to attack and it paid off,” says Antim, who beat Kazakhstan’s Alytn Shagayeva 8-0 in the final.