Wrestler Apurva Vaishnav gunning for gold in Turkey

INDORE: The 17-year-old wrestler, Apurva Vaishnav has brought laurel to the city as well as the state by representing India in School World Wrestling Championship, which began on Monday in Trabzon of Turkey.
Inspired from Indian wrestler, Vinesh Phogat, who will be representing India in Rio Olympics, Vaishnav is the only female wrestler from Indore, who has been selected for the under-19 category of the championship.The world championship is scheduled to conclude on July 18, where Vaishnav will be battling it out with international wrestlers.
“Vaishnav has been training for the past three years and has reached to international platform in very less time,” said her coach Ved Prakash.
Vaishnav had won silver medal in School Games National Wrestling Championship held at Ujjain in the month of December last year. The medallists qualified for the trials in Bhopal to select wrestlers for the school world games.
In the trials organised by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), Vaishnav outperformed the other wrestlers in her category to become the first female wrestler from the city to take part in an international tournament.
Vaishnav’s wrestling journey began three years ago, when her father Ajay Vaishnav witnessed Indian women wrestlers winning medals for the country at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
"When I saw female wrestlers from small towns representing the country in the Commonwealth Games, I decided that Apurva should practice wrestling. Even her grandfather was a well-known wrestler of his time," said Ajay, who also takes care of Vaishnav’s diet and physical fitness.
She learned the techniques and skills of wrestling at Sai Centre at Malhar Ashram in the city. International wrestling coach, Ved Prakash coached Vaishnav along with other female wrestlers.
She has looked up to Vinesh Phogat as her idol and aims to defeat her in the ring one day. Vaishnav had the privilege to meet and stay with her idol at the sub-junior national camp held at Lucknow earlier this year in May.
"Vaishnav was selected for the camp, where her idol Vinesh Phogat was her roommate and she was extremely excited to be with her," her father said.
“Phogat told Vaishnav that she should aim to defeat her one day and make her name bigger than the Olympian,” Ajay added.
Meanwhile, both her father and the coach are expecting high from Vaishnav and hope that she will bring an Olympic gold in the near future.