Wrestling is in news. From the time Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt emerged as the icons of this manly sport, there was a silent surge among female wrestlers to emulate their feats. The small town of Rohtak became the hub and Haryana the most loved state as wrestlers and boxers came to the fore to set new benchmarks in Indian sports.
The wrestlers trained for the Rio Olympics at the Sonepat centre of the Sports Authority of India. Recently, the centre came up with a dedicated training hall for wrestlers and named it after Sakshi Malik, the shining brand ambassador for the sport.
Sakshi was delighted at the development. “The hall looks wonderful and I will always be honoured and grateful for this space you have created for the female wrestler. Thanking you from the bottom of my heart,” she said in a message to Radhica Sreeman, the SAI official in-charge of the centre.
“Never before had an athlete been bestowed with such huge honour. It is a great source of motivation for my fellow wrestlers. Women wrestlers are struggling hard to make a mark. With such facilities they will do very well in years to come. Women wrestlers will not let this effort go in vain,” said Sakshi.
The Sakshi Malik Wrestling Hall was recently inaugurated by Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Vijay Goel.
The new training facility for wrestling, the hall was thrown open in the company of Olympians Sushil Kumar and Akhil Kumar.
“It has been widely observed that a child growing up playing sport often shines in other spheres of life as well. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be a Sushil, Sakshi or Akhil. I appeal to all the young athletes to stay focused, respect their coach and work hard, because there is nothing that you cannot achieve if you put your mind to it,” said Goel.
Sushil observed, “My only advice to the upcoming athletes is what my Guru told me. ‘How much ever famous you become, always maintain discipline.’ We are all there to support you at all times. You have the best of facilities. This kind of a wrestling hall I have seen in the United States when we went there for training before the Olympics. It is now therefore also your responsibility.”
For Sreeman, the Director of the SAI Northern Regional Centre, it was the culmination of hard work and planning. “This 83-acre campus is the pride of India. Our endeavour has been to expand into as many more Olympic sports as possible and with that view in mind we have come up with a new archery training ground as well as an astro turf for hockey apart from facilities for athletics, boxing and judo. Wrestling of course is the jewel of the Sonepat centre and this new world-class hall I am sure will get more glory for the country in the future.”
The Sakshi Malik Wrestling Hall is complete with four training mats of international competition standards as well as a sauna and jacuzzi facility. A sports medicine and rehabilitation centre along with a hypoxia centre for high altitude training operating at the campus are added facilities.
