14 Years Old, From Jharkhand Made Her State Proud By Earning A Spot In The World Cadet Wrestling Championship

Chanchala Kumari, 14 years old, from Jharkhand, has made the state proud by qualifying for the World Cadet Wrestling Championship. The games will take place later in the month in Hungary, between July 19 and July 25.

According to Jharkhand-based instructor Bablu Kumar, wrestlers primarily come from Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Punjab. He also mentioned that the Indian contingent for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 has a majority of wrestlers from Haryana.

As per Bablu, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between JSSPS and Central Coalfields Limited to use the Khel Gaon sports complex, a state-of-the-art facility built in 2009 for national games, as a training site for aspiring athletes.

He expressed his joy while stating that with the formation of the state of Jharkhand in the year 2000, they never had a wrestling champion and this is a proud moment for the state.

However, Chanchala's journey was never as spectacular as it appears now. She is from Hatwal village, which is about 30 kilometers from Ranchi, and her father owns a half-acre plot of land that just provides enough revenue to support a family of six. He works as a plumber or does odd tasks to supplement his income.

The family's financial situation is precarious, as it belongs to the Oraon tribal community. They survived on boiled rice with starch, for many days. They can afford to eat rice with one veggie on good days.

Chanchala's luck changed when the Jharkhand State Sports Promotion Society, a state government program that recognizes and promotes sporting talent from rural areas, recognized her ability.

He recounts how Chanchala and her mother arrived to sign up for training when she was 11 years old. In 2016, we tested a large number of children and put them through six months of physical training to determine their athletic potential and interests.

He claims Chanchala had wrestling potential and had trained throughout the years. Her efforts were rewarded with a silver medal from the School Games Federation of India in 2017-18, composed of two gold medals in 2019 and 2020, placing her first in the under-15 category. Chanchala went on to win bronze in a national competition in Kota in 2020 and qualified for the Lucknow India camp with wrestling stars Sakshi Malik and Geeta Phogat in October of that year, which ended in March 2021.

She qualified for the World Cadet Wrestling Championship by winning the wrestling tryouts in New Delhi in June. Chanchala also had lessons from Bholanath Singh and Rajeev Rajan, in addition to Bablu.