Ace Indian wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia are aiming to reap a rich harvest at the New Delhi Asian Wrestling Championships from their ongoing training stint in Russia.
The duo are training hard with Russian wrestlers at the training camp in Makhachkala under coach Murad Gaudrov. The coach, rendering his services under the Tata Motors Wrestling Development Programme, is working on techniques by exposing the wrestlers to bigger challenges against the native Russian grapplers.
The three-week camp in Russia, to conclude on February 11, though is part of an extensive long-term training and exposure regime in run up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, its timing has been apt for the wrestlers to pursue their Asian Championship goals.
The Rome Ranking Series winner Dahiya is claiming that there is a marked difference between training in India and Russia.
“I am practising and training here (in Russia) with better and stronger wrestlers. This is helping with my agility, leg defence and attack. Coach Murad is helping me in every way possible. He makes sure a new challenge comes before me every day. That is making me stronger as a wrestler and improving my techniques,” Dahiya, who is gunning for gold in the Tokyo Olympics, told WrestlingTV.in.
Both Dahiya and Punia have already booked the berths for the Olympics Games in Tokyo. The Asian Wrestling Championships from February 18-23 in Delhi will also enable the duo to assess the test themselves.
The 2019 World Championship silver medallist Deepak Punia wasn’t able to deliver at the Rome Ranking Series as per his potential due to fitness issues. He had to suffer a first-round exit there.
He now is eager to prove his mettle in the Asian Championships. The home crowd will have high expectations from him in the 86kg freestyle competition. Though he will be facing a stiff challenge from strong contenders from Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Dahiya will have to deal with the challenge from formidable Yuki Takahashi of Japan, the 2017 World and Asian Championships gold medallist. Iran’s Alireza Nasratolah, U-23 World Championships bronze medallist is another formidable contender in his weight category.
