Celebrated wrestling (Kushti) coach Shako Bentinidis is back in India to join Bajrang Punia for Mission Olympics Tokyo 2020. Shako, Bajrang’s personal coach for long, had returned home on a short break. He will continue to work exclusively with Bajrang. In an exclusive interview to WrestlingTV.in, Shako said, in the Mission Olympics, we are targeting Olympic Gold at Tokyo 2020.
In the interview, Shako also claimed that 65kg is now the world’s toughest weight category but Bajrang is confident of shinning at Tokyo Olympics. Watch the full interview by clicking this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCFWVG97fJI&t=90s
Bajrang had to settle for a bronze at the UWW World Wrestling Championships 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The WFI was not happy with the coach’s contribution at the World Championships. However, considering his role in Bajrang’s growth, the federation had decided to continue the coach-wrestler association.
Also Read: ‘We will win 4 Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020’ : Bajrang Punia
Shako has been engaged by the Wrestling Federation of India to exclusively train Bajrang, India’s best bet for a wrestling (Kushti) medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games next year. He will now be directly reporting to the WFI with no external interferences.
The Georgian coach has been signed by Sporty Solutionz Private Limited, WFI’s commercial partners, under the ‘Tata Motors Elite Wrestlers Development Programme’.
Shako will start training with at the Sports Authority of India centre, Sonepat, from Tuesday.
