India’s most successful and decorated wrestler Sushil Kumar is mighty impressed with U23 world wrestling (Kushti) silver medallist Pooja Gehlot. According to Sushil Pooja is extremely talented and can do India proud in the future.
22 year old Pooja met her idol Sushil at the Chatrsaal Stadium to seek her blessings and the Indian great congratulated the entire family for Pooja’s exploits at the U23 World Championships.
Congratulations @pooja_gahlawat_53kg for winning a silver medal ? in under-23 World championships. Also congratulations to the proud family.. keep working hard and make India proud ??
Pooja Gehlot showed her strength and talent at the just concluded U23 World Wrestling (Kushti) championships where she won a silver medal for India in the 53kg weight category. Young Pooja is now setting her sight on the Tokyo-2020 Olympics. But to make it to Tokyo, Pooja will move down to 50kg category. Pooja who is currently wrestling (Kushti) in the 53kg category and fellow senior Vinesh Phogat has already booked quota in the category at Nur-Sultan senior world championships. This is the reason Pooja will reduce her weight to compete in 50kg for a race to Tokyo. In an interview to WrestlingTV, Pooja has already confirmed the shift.
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“Vinesh has already qualified in 53kg and if I have to make it to Tokyo I need to compete in 50kg and I will do the same. I will try my best to book the quota place in the forthcoming qualifiers’’.
The shift to 50kg for Pooja will not be as easy as it seems. If her Olympic dream has to come true, before setting her sight on the Olympic qualifiers, Pooja has to overcome the domestic challenge. Seema who is currently ranked number 2 in the UWW World rankings was India’s choice at the senior world wrestling (Kushti) in 50kg and Pooja has to overcome the challenge of Seema and few other talented Indian wrestlers to earn a right to represent India at the Olympic Qualifiers.
As per the UWW schedule, Indian wrestlers including Pooja have two more chances to qualify for the Tokyo 2020. The first being continental Olympic qualifiers in the month of March in China and the last one will be the world qualifiers in the month of April in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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