Patna: Nirjala Kumari of Begusarai (Bihar) won a silver medal in the 49 kg category of the National U-17 Wrestling Championship being held in Nandani Nagar, Gonda, on Monday. With this medal win, Nirjala rewrote history in women’s wrestling of Bihar, as no Bihar girl in the last 50 years had ever won a silver medal in a national championship.
Nirjala won her first match by fall against a Pondicherry wrestler, her second match by fall against a Telangana wrestler, and her third match by fall against a Delhi wrestler. In the gold medal match, she lost narrowly to a Karnataka wrestler.
Bihar State Sports Authority director general Raveendran Sankaran said that Bihar women wrestlers were being trained under the guidance of two national level coaches at Khel Bhawan Gaya. The wrestlers were provided with all basic facilities by the government, he added.
Along with this, two more Bihar girls, Jugnu Bhardwaj in the 57 kg weight category and Kalpana Tiwari in the 53 kg weight category, missed out on silver medals narrowly.
Director general of Bihar State Sports Authority Raveendran Sankaran, Bihar State Wrestling Association president Vishal Singh, senior vice president Dr Arun Kumar, vice president engineer Sanjeev Kumar, Nitendra Singh, general secretary Vinay Kumar Singh, joint secretary Amarnath Meharbar, Vivek Bhardwaj, Abhilasha Kumari, Sonu Bhorik and Coaches Poonam Yadav, Rampujan Sahni congratulated Nirjala and gave their best wishes. Bihar Wrestling Association will soon honour Nirjala Kumari, according to Vinay Kumar Singh, general secretary of Bihar Wrestling Association.
