Punjabi flavour in Canada, England’s wrestling teams for Commonwealth Games

Express News Service

CHENNAI:  The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has already selected a 12-member squad comprising Olympic medallists Ravi Dahiya, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. While the Indian team has enough firepower to set the wrestling mat ablaze, it doesn’t have any athletes from Punjab, once called the land of Pehalwans (wrestlers).

However, in faraway lands, Punjabis have found enough firepower to storm into their respective national teams. At least three wrestlers with roots in Punjab will represent their respective countries at the CWG. Mandhir Singh Kooner (125kg) will represent England while Amarveer Dhesi (125kg) and Nishan Preet Randhawa (97kg) will compete for Canada.

Mandhir’s father, Surinder Singh Kooner, hails from Rurkee Village in Jalandhar district and Amarveer’s father, Balbir Singh Dhesi, is from Sanghwal village in the same district. Nishan Preet’s father, Gurjit Singh Randhawa, has family tree engraved in Bundala of Kapurthala district.

“I started going for wrestling training sessions with my dad where my cousins were taking part when I was five or six,” Mandhir, who was born in Wolverhampton, told this daily. Soon he got hooked on the sport and by 2013 he won the junior national championship twice.

When he turned 17, Mandhir began participating in the senior category and soon found a place in the national squad. “In 2019, I visited India. I trained there under PR Sondhi, a former India coach, and also competed in local dangals.” But as he extended his stay in the country and couldn’t reply to emails from the England federation, he was let go from the team. “I then won gold at the 2021 UK and 2022 English Championships to reclaim my place apart from winning CWG trials.”

Mandhir had a good training stint in Italy and he is looking forward to competing against the wrestler with Punjabi roots in the event. “It’s good that Punjabi wrestlers are competing in the CWG. I am quite excited for my bout against Amarveer and Indian wrestler Mohit Grewal, who hails from Haryana, in 125kg,” he added.

Meanwhile, Amarveer, who represented Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the 2022 Senior Pan-American Championships, will be hoping to continue his good form. “He is in good form. We all are hoping for him to finish on the podium at the CWG,” father Balbir Singh said.

Nishan Preet also competed at the event in 97kg. He started wrestling at his maternal uncle Boota Singh Dhinsa’s academy in Vancouver. “He was around five or six when he got into wrestling. He had a good training stint in Russia and is currently in the USA to prepare for the CWG,” Dhinsa said. India’s Deepak is expected to be Nishan Preet’s opponent when he takes the mat for his country.

Mud wrestling prime reason
Sondhi, also an executive member of the WFI and former secretary-general of Punjab Association, blamed cash-rich mud wrestling for the downfall of the sport in the state. “When they can earn quick money by competing in mud wrestling why would they undergo hardships of the mat wrestling,” he said. He also lamented the lack of support from the state government. “Haryana has a sports policy and it encourages youths to take up sports. In Punjab, we don’t have much support from the government. It’s high time we look into the issue and do the needful to arrest the slide,” Sondhi signed off.