She may have started dreaming of wrestling success after watching Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia but Antim Panghal now aims to do better. Having defended her Under-20 World Championships title recently in style and becoming the only Indian wrestler to do so, and preparing for the Asian Games, Antim is confident of continuing the momentum.
“I started wrestling after watching Vinesh and Bajrang but I always wanted to be like (former CWG medalist) Nirmala Boora. Vinesh is a very good wrestler and has won medals everywhere but my practice is also going good. My effort will now be to do even better than her and win even more medals. I know every wrestler will be tough and I have never been to the Asian Games before but I am working on doing well. The immediate focus, though, is the trials for the World Championships and then the actual event,” Antim said in a media interaction on August 24.
With little time to recover between events and trials recently and with little respite in the coming months, the 19-year old admitted it was tough but was confident of managing both the workload and expectations.
