In 2022, Ankush lost to Neelam in a re-trial for the World Championships in the women’s 50kg category, thus losing her chance to participate in her first-ever senior international tournament.
However, at the Wrestling trials conducted by Wrestling Federation of India for the Asian Championships on Saturday, Ankush defeated Neelam 8-1 in the final of the 50kg women’s category to book her berth for the continental tournament.
“I am extremely delighted today. Finally, I’ll have my chance at the international tournament at senior level,” said Ankush after her bout. “Earlier in 2022, I had defeated Neelam to book my berth for that year’s World Championships but due to some scoring error, WFI conducted a re-trial and I lost against Neelam in a tight fight,” said Ankush.
Ankush claims she was tired during the retrial due to hectic travel. “After winning the trials, I returned to Hisar before I got to know about the re-trials. I was exhausted, had to cut my weight again and hence I lost the bout,” she said.
After losing a spot at the World Championships, Ankush suffered another setback when she had an ACL injury in 2023. “I started well in 2023 but suffered an ACL injury and had to undergo knee surgery. I played in the Olympic qualifiers trials in 2024 but lost to Shivanee Pawar due to my injury,” said Ankush.
Late breakthrough at senior
The wrestler from Bagana village of Hisar district in Haryana, which is also home to Olympian wrestler and two-time U20 World Champion Antim Panghal, picked up wrestling in her school. Training with a group of five kids, Ankush broke into the junior scene very early at the age of 14 years. She won a silver medal at the U17 World Championships 2015.
After her U17 World medal, Ankush shifted to the Sushil Kumar Wrestling Academy in Hisar. “I used to train in my village with a group of five girls. Antim also used to come, but she was a junior then. After I won at the U17 Worlds, I shifted to Hisar at my current academy under my coach Jasbeer Dhaka sir,” Ankush said.
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Despite participating in age-group tournaments like Cadet World Championships and Junior World Championships, Ankush didn’t get desired results. Her next big moment came in 2022 when she won a silver medal at the U23 World Championships, losing to Japanese wrestler Yui Susaki in the final.
“Yeah, It took some time for me. I would have played in 2022 but it was not in my fate,” sighed Ankush. “However, my first target for this year will be to finish on the podium at the Asian Championships and use this chance completely.”
Playing in a tough competition class
One of the reasons why Ankush took so much time to play her first-ever tournament at the International level is the competitiveness of the category she features in. 50kg and 53kg categories are the two of the most competitive categories in the country in Women’s Wrestling. Wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Antim Panghal, Shivanee Pawar, and Neelam dominate these two categories.
When Vinesh switched to 50kg for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the competition increased manifold; she emerged as the eventual winner of the trials and later won the Olympics quota at the Asian qualifiers. While Vinesh was not present at the trials, Ankush was clubbed with Shivanee and Neelam in Group B of the 50kg category today.
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“It’s an extremely competitive group. I have played against Shivanee and Neelam before. So I was confident of facing them,” Ankush said.
Ankush got the better of Neelam and Shivanee in the group stage first and then defeated Neelam in the final to clinch her berth for the Asian Championships. Ankush started with a 6-4 win against Neelam in the first game, then defeated Shivanee 5-3 in a tight bout. She thrashed Chanchal in the semi-finals, defeating her via technical superiority (11-0), and again defeated Neelam with much ease in the final to clinch her berth for the continental championships.
Talking about today’s trials, Ankush said,”I was thinking about Shivanee before the trials as I had lost to her in the Olympic qualifiers trials. Today was also a tight bout but I eventually prevailed.”
Last moment chance at Continental C’ships
Indian wrestling was in a limbo since the start of the year as the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) failed to send teams to the first two ranking series (Zagreb and Albania) due to the ban imposed by the Sports Ministry based on a high court order. As the chance looked bleak for even participating at the Asian Championships, the Sports Ministry lifted the ban on 11th March allowing WFI to host the trials for the tournament and send the team on the deadline day, that is today.
