Year in review 2022 | Seniors struggle a bit but Greco Roman and junior wrestlers shine

Despite dominating CWG, the tougher World Championships served a reality check for the Indian stars.

They were expected to dominate the field at the Commonwealth Games and they did but the tougher World Championships served a reality check for the established Indian stars even as the rise of Greco Roman wrestlers and exceptional show by the juniors made it an eventful 2022 for Indian wrestling.

India won 12 medals at Birmingham CWG, where Sakshi Malik tried to resurrect her career by winning a gold but only Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat returned with medals from the World Championships in Belgrade. The Greco Roman style, a poor cousin of free style wrestling in India, had a lot cheer with historic three-medal performance at the U-23 World Championships through Sajan Bhanwala, Nitesh and Vikas.

The juniors, both boys and girls, emerged serious medal contenders in age group competitions across globe, something which Indian wrestling witnessed for the first time. The rise of Antim Panghal, who became U-20 world champion in Sofia, is very heartening as she could be India's best bet in 53kg when Vinesh Phogat would not be around.

Ravi Dahiya became an overnight star after his Olympic silver in 2021 but he remained a bit subdued this year, though he began by winning a gold and a silver on the circuit and later added a gold to his kitty at the Asian Championships.

At the start of the season, he competed in the 61kg as he preferred not to go through the energy-sapping and painful process of weight cut.

After an expected gold at CWG, crashing out of the Worlds was a big shock not for Ravi himself but his legion of fans, given his tremendous grip in the 57kg competition.

Despite possessing exceptional strength, stamina, technique which combines well with his big heart for fight, Ravi could not win a medal at the big stage.