At 19, Divya Kakran is no stranger to winning wrestling bouts. Even before she became a teenager, she has been defeating boys in village bouts while her father would sell langots on the sidelines.
Now, she is doing the same at the national level and her father Suraj is doing the same. As Divya won the gold medal at nationals on November 17, her father was again selling langots outside the stadium.
PTI
The journey however has not been an easy one. Hailing from Golakpur in east Delhi, it was humble beginnings for Divya. It was her father who pushed her to keep going.
Before the tournament, her coach told her she could win the title if she tried. The self belief worked and Divya went the distance.
As she made the transition from the dangal to mud wrestling, Divya had to change her game accordingly. After her first major silver medal at the Asian Championships in July, Divya had to stop wrestling. With a stone detected in her kidney, she had to pay regular visits to the hospital.?
This was a big blow and she missed out on a lot while recovering. The move to Uttar Pradesh worked as winning medals brought in cash rewards.
Her father has been there every step of the way. She is just 19 and has years of wrestling ahead of her. With the Asian and Commonwealth Games coming up next year and the Olympics in 2020, we might see a bright new star on the wrestling horizon. The journey of a little girl who wanted to wrestle is far from over, but at the moment her career is certainly on course. She took a sport which was allegedly only for men, and proved she was in a class by herself.