Deepak Punia trains with childhood friend

As we all know, Wrestling is a contact sport, and it is highly imperative that a wrestler needs a partner to train with. Following the global pandemic spread across the globe, athletes or most especially wrestlers are finding it hard to train without a sparring partner. However, India wrestler Deepak Punia has begun full training with his childhood friend, Mandeep.

The Tokyo Olympics bound wrestler has already secured qualifications in the Men’s 86kg category. Deepak and Mandeep have been staying together at Deepak’s residence in Jhajjar.

Deepak has given a narrative of their routine daily, saying Mandeep wakes him up early in the morning to begin their daily practice. “Mandeep has been my childhood friend since time immemorial, and we’ve always done things together. He wakes me up, saying Deepak gets ready and lets train. He his an excellent motivator and a sparring partner as well. He is a professional who has won a medal at the national level as well. That’s how our routine is during this lockdown”.

During the 2019 World Wrestling Championships last year, Deepak had to pull out from the gold medal game in the men’s 86kg category against Hassan Yazdani  due to the leg injury he sustained in the tournament held in Nur-Sultan

Speaking on the injury sustained last year, Deepak said he was a devastated and sad for not reaching his target of winning a goal medal. He said “when I got injured, i wasn’t happy with myself and I almost burst into tears for the fact that i couldn’t win a medal for my country. Still, now I’m better and hoping to do well in the forthcoming Olympics with regular training with Mandeep”. He said.

Written by: Olumide Akinnifesi