Arjuna Award recommendation for three Haryana grapplers

Grapplers Babita Kumari, Amit Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang have been recommended by the Wrestling Federation of India for this year’s Arjuna award.

“We have recommended the names of Babita Kumari, Amit Kumar and Bajrang for this year’s Arjuna award,” Assistant secretary of WFI, Vinod Tomar told PTI.

One of the famous Phogat sisters, 25-year-old Babita, fights in the women’s freestyle wrestling 55kg category and has done pretty well in the last one year.

She won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July last year <g data-gr-id="29">but unfortunately</g> lost out on a third-place finish in a well-fought bronze medal play-off bout in the Incheon Asian Games in September last year.

In the recently-concluded Senior Asian Wrestling championship, Babita did well, although she failed to make it to the podium after losing the bronze medal by a whisker.

Rising wrestler Amit, 21, first came to prominence when he made the Indian squad for the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the youngest wrestler ever to represent the country at the Olympic Games.

In 2013, he bagged the silver medal at World Wrestling <g data-gr-id="28">Championships,</g> while last year, he won the yellow metal in the Commonwealth Games in Men’s 57kg Freestyle division.

Another talented 21-year-old wrestler, Bajrang competes in men’s 61kg Freestyle category.

After the revision of the divisions last year, Bajrang had claimed a silver medal at Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

A year before, he had won a bronze each at the 2013 Asian Wrestling Championships and 2013 World Wrestling Championships in the 60kg category.