Patiala,
\nThe last few years have been very painful for Navjot Kaur. A back injury she suffered in 2014 disrupted her career soon after she won a bronze medal at that year\u2019s Commonwealth Games. She was then 24; the next three years were spent trying to get back into the sport. Then, last December, there was heartbreak \u2014 she lost in the trials to select the Indian team for this year\u2019s Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
She turned 28 last month and, it seemed, her future in the sport was not too bright.<\/p>\n
Fortunes change
\nYesterday, she lost her opening bout in the 65kg freestyle category at the Asian Championship to Japan\u2019s Myu Imai after a very close bout. But she got lucky \u2014 the event was fought on a round-robin basis, which meant that she still had a chance. She then won her second bout to enter the semifinals, in which she beat Mongolia\u2019s Enkhbayar Tsevegmedi to enter the final. Her opponent in the final? The same Myu Imai. \u201cGod gave me a second chance and I had to take it,\u201d she says. Navjot achieved throws worth four points twice in the bout \u2014 the first time in the first period, the second time with just 30-odd seconds left in the second period. The second four-pointer was scored when the Japanese wrestler managed to grab Navjot\u2019s right leg, but the Indian threw her on her back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been preparing for this and waiting for this for very long,\u201d Navjot later said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the national camp, I was supported and motivated by the whole team, including the coaches and the medical staff. I was a bit nervous, being on this platform and you have a lot of load on your shoulders. But I was confident. I was being boosted, \u2018No, you can do it, you can beat Japan, it\u2019s not something that you can\u2019t achieve.\u2019\u201d She said winning gold on Holi was a great blessing. \u201cI believe I got a blessing from the whole of India, and I dedicate the medal to the whole country. That is how I will celebrate, a gift of Holi to the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Dedicated wrestler
\nFormer national coach PR Sondhi, who has trained Navjot Kaur at the national camps at NIS, Patiala, said it was a big day for the wrestling community, and Punjab in particular. \u201cNavjot has always been a very serious grappler and would not indulge in any unnecessary politics,\u201d he said. \u201cShe would just mind her own business and train hard. Her dedication and zeal have finally been rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this medal, Navjot has once again proved her worth and I hope the Punjab government will take note of her achievements and offer her a good job. It is unfortunate that she had to join Railways instead of serving Punjab,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Patiala, The last few years have been very painful for Navjot Kaur. A back injury she suffered in 2014 disrupted her career soon after she won a bronze medal at that year\u2019s Commonwealth Games. She was then 24; the next three years were spent trying to get back into the sport. Then, last December, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23771,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23769\/revisions\/23771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}