new Delhi: Today is the birthday of Bajrang Punia Birthday, the world’s best wrestler of wrestling. He was born on this day in Haryana. He was brought up in Khudan village of Jhajjar district. He has won gold medals in Asia and Commonwealth. This year he is celebrating his 28th birthday.
Bajrang Punia fights for the country in 65kg category. He is the only wrestler from India to have won a medal at the World Wrestling Championships three times. Poonia has inherited wrestling. His father Balwan Poonia also used to be a wrestler. However, due to financial constraints and bad conditions, he never got a chance to prove himself.
The financial condition of the family was bad even when Bajrang was teaching wrestling. But, his father did not want to let his son’s desires be sacrificed. Many people tell that, Bajrang’s father used to travel by bicycle instead of traveling by bus and auto, so that by doing so he could save some money for his son. Poonia’s father used to save money only so that he could give good diet to Bajrang, because at that time Bajrang was learning wrestler. The family had compromised their circumstances for many years to ensure that Bajrang got ghee and milk on time.
The world caught sight of Bajrang Punia when he won the World Championships bronze medal in the 60kg weight category in 2013. Olympian Yogeshwar Dutt was very impressed by this feat done at the age of just 19. After which he started training Bajrang under his supervision.
Some things related to Bajrang Punia
- Bajrang Punia is the first Indian wrestler to become World No 1 in the Wrestling Rankings.
- He is working in Indian Railways as Traveling Ticket Examiner (TTE).
- Poonia was the first Indian wrestler to compete in the prestigious German league.
- Bajrang Punia had won gold medals in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
- Bajrang was the first Indian wrestler to wrestle at the prestigious Madison Square Garden Arena in New York.
- He is honored with Arjuna Award in 2015 and Padma Shri and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2019.