{"id":68395,"date":"2019-09-23T18:05:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T12:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=68395"},"modified":"2020-11-04T10:46:32","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T05:16:32","slug":"championship-just-announce-world-getting-back-sushil-kumar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/sports-news\/championship-just-announce-world-getting-back-sushil-kumar\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI was at this Championship just to announce to the world that I am getting back\u201d: Sushil Kumar"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Veteran wrestler Sushil Kumar said he fought in the recently concluded Wrestling World Championships 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan to announce to the world that he is getting back. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI lost but I felt good on the mat. I was faster than Jakarta. I was at this Championship just to announce to the world that I am getting back. And even the foreign coaches around said, \u2018you look like getting back\u2019,\u201d Sushil told PTI in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though he won gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 editions of the Commonwealth Games, he struggled at the Jakarta Asian Games leading to questions on whether he was good enough to go any further at 36. He did fight better this time than the Jakarta Games but nonetheless exited after a first-round defeat in the 74kg category.<\/span><\/p>\n

He did show glimpses of the raw talent that made him an Olympic legend, the only one from India with two individual medals, when he twice troubled Azerbaijan\u2019s Khadzhimurad Gadhiyev with four-point throws.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two-time Olympic medalist said he is on a 90-day training programme with Russian coach Kamal Malikov to get back to his best and win a Tokyo Olympic quota for India.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI lack in stamina and defence as of now. My coach Malikov had said he wants 90 day-training to put me back in shape. It\u2019s about 50 days as of now. I had put on weight and I had slowed down too,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut today, I have lost weight, I have become faster. The body is in competition mode. My coach says I am better from what I was two years ago,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is technically, a very sound coach. Every aspect was looked into before finalizing the contract with him. He is respected in Russia,\u201d he said about his coach. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sushil Kumar also said his coach Malikov has urged him to fight more often even as he shied away from competing regularly. Notably, Sushil has competed in only 7 tournaments over the last 7 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, I should play only bigger tournaments but the coach said no, I have to be in competition every month or in every 45 days to have enough mat-time,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked on why he was not competing for years, he said, \u201cHonestly, I did not feel like competing but people who are close to me said, even If I have 10-20 percent of wrestling left in me, I should not quit. So I decided to train and qualify for the Olympics. I will try to qualify from the Asian event next year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sushil said while the years of experience behind him make him technically sound, his training methods have changed as he is not young anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs you age, you have to change. I can\u2019t put myself to rigours after a certain age. You can\u2019t break your body. I still love wrestling, so still here,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am doing everything but not going the whole hog. I have to do everything. I have to run, I have to be on the mat, in the gym, do some power training. The coach makes my schedule. And when it\u2019s competition, its different training,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expressing his love for wrestling and support from loved ones as the main reason for his comeback, Sushil said, \u201cI still love wrestling. I have the support of my family and my Guru Mahabali Satpal ji. He says, \u2018even if you have a 10 percent of wrestling left in you, you must not leave the mat\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2009 I was close to World Championship title, in 2003 I missed it by a very close margin. The world champions lose and the Olympic champions also lose,\u201d he pointed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also Read: The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019: Lionel Messi, Megan Rapinoe wins FIFA Player of the Year awards<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI lost in Belarus and at the World Championship but I am analysing. I have learnt to digest defeats. If I win I don\u2019t become arrogant and If I lose, I don\u2019t lose heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sushil returned to the World Championships after eight years and found that a lot has changed in the Indian wrestling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people helping our boys. It was not the case before. Tata Motors, the WFI, JSW, OGQ, they all are doing their bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you will compare the India team and the USA team, you notice we too have a very good support staff. We have personal foreign coaches attached with the wrestlers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are physios, doctors travelling with the team all the time. This is a big change in last 8 years and it only good for the sport,\u201d he said.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran wrestler Sushil Kumar said he fought in the recently concluded Wrestling World Championships 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan to announce to the world that he is getting back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[80184,80186,80189,80188,80187,636,80042,5228,80185],"yst_prominent_words":[80178,15558,24453,80180,80179,40253,26356,35028,21710,80182,80183,10278,5038,14250,6449,20829,17914,79943,59147,80181],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2019\/09\/23180315\/World-Champions.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68395"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68395"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=68395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}