New Delhi, Feb 1(.) Chief Coach of Delhi Dangal Warriors Jagminder Singh praised Shubham Kaushik for his incredible come from behind win in Saturday’s semi final against Maharashtra Kesari in the ongoing Pro Wrestling League(PWL) being played at the Noida indoor stadium.
What made Shubham’s victory special was that he was playing with an injured knee and turned things around in dramatic fashion in the power minute. Shubham Kaushik fought Atish Todkar of Maharashtra Kesari in the men’s 57 kg category, he trailed 6-10 going into the power minute yet won the contest 11-10.
Spaeking to . after the match, Singh said “he was injured even prior to the match but despite that he pulled off an excellent technique to turn the match around and win,”
Shubham Kaushik was named Player of the Match for his impressive victory.
When asked about the excellent performances of Delhi’s foreign fighters- Robert Baran, Anaesthesia Alpyeyeva, Hadi Bakhtiar, Turan Bayramov all of whom won crucial bouts for the team, he said
“we picked them(foreign Players) judiciously, we knew the abilities of the players, we were picking at the auction.”
Going into the finals, scheduled to be played later today, he appeared worried about the injuries among his players “many of our wrestlers are injured, we will assess the situation and plan accordingly. More than the opponent we are thinking about injuries within our squad.”
Apart from Shubham’s knee injury, Karla Godinez suffered a fingur injury during her bout against Manisha Bhanvala, while Anaesthesia Alpyeyeva also suffered an ear injury during her match against Harshita Mor.
Singh said that the PWL is an excellent learning opportunity for emerging players to learn but stressed that the nationals are the competition that reveals the true potential of the wrestlers.
Speaking to ., Delhi Dangal Warriors’ Anjli, who won the first fight of the night against Dudova Bilyana in the women’s 62 kg category said “I enjoyed today’s fight, very happy with my performance.”
The Bulgarian athlete displayed immense upper body strength but Anjli was skilful in taking the back and in executing her take downs, she eventually won comfortably 12-4.
Anjli, said that while playing the PWL she is getting an opportunity to learn from high class foreign talent
“I had many discussions with Anastasia(Alpyeyeva) during our practice sessions, I ask her a lot of questions.”
A promising wrestler who won the gold in the Khelo India University Games 2025 spoke about her future plans “
after PWL, I will straight away leave for Europe to participate in a senior ranking tournament in Croatia, post that I will focus on Asian games trials.”
Anjli said that she idolises Japan’s two time Olympic medalist Yui Susaki and is looking forward to meeting her.
Delhi Dangal Warriors will face Haryana Thunders in the finals on Sunday.
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