Rajiv Bhatia
Zirakpur, December 5
For Lovepreet, day begins early. Winters or summers, this 12-year-old promising wrestler leaves his bed for the training session as early as 4 am at the Gulzar Wrestling Akhara here. His aim is to secure a medal in Olympic Games and to accomplish his dream he has to stay away from his family, which is in Karnal.
However, Love is not the only one following this stiff schedule as there are many other budding wrestlers who are practicing hard, supporting a hope of winning a medal in their eyes.
Guljar Wrestling Akhara, a government-adopted one was started in 2005, at Zirakpur in Punjab, after the name of late Gulzar Singh Sandhu, a noted wrestler.
Around 40 young wrestlers from different states like Himachal, Haryana and Punjab get training under the vigil eyes of SAI coach RS Kundu.
Kundu, who did his advance training from Budapest (Hungary), said, “Earlier the wrestling centre was set up at Shivalik Public School in phase VI, by the SAI but after some time it could not be continued. Due to this many talented wrestlers came on road side.”
He added “Then this wrestling centre was started in Dara Studio at Mohali by late Gulzar Singh Sandhu, its president. The young wrestlers brought many laurels for the Akhara under his training.”
Considering the achievements of this akhara, Government of India adopted it under NSTC Day Boarding Scheme in 2003. They provided facilities like multi-gym of 12 stations, a set of mats and stipend for 20 wrestlers, which is Rs 1,000 per month per wrestler, were provided by the SAI.
“Unfortunately in 2005, Gulzar Singh Sandhu died. He represented the country in national and international competitions. After his death, the authorities of Dara Studio had not given us further permission to run coaching centre,” stated Kundu.
“I sold my house and bought a piece of land where I started the akhara,” said Kundu.
Kundu said many international wrestlers like Nitin Rathee; world junior bronze medalist in 2008; Rajender Singh, Karmbir Singh, Shamsher Singh, Rakesh, Om Vir, Krishan Kumar were started their career with the akhara which has won 30 medals in various competitions like Asian/Commonwealth Games, Asian/Commonwealth championships, SAF Games, World Junior/Sub Junior Championship, Asian Junior/Sub Junior Championship and Grand Prix International Championships.
He said providing a good diet to wrestlers is a major problem. The young wrestlers need only good diet and for that they are requesting Punjab government for some help.
Kundu said for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, Hardeep Singh an inmate here is reserve member in the camp. Hardeep has won medals in junior and national competitions.
The young wrestlers are getting free accommodation and free training at the centre. They are also pursuing their studies at various schools and colleges.
Vinod Pandey, a 19-year-old young wrestler said winning a gold medal in Olympic Games is his main aim. He said, “We have started morning practice session from 5 am to 7 pm and evening session in which wrestlers bout from 3 pm to 7 pm”.
“If we get a proper diet we will definitely bring laurels for Punjab and India,” added another wrestler Shiv Narayan.
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