"I'm hopeful of a good result" - Delhi’s fearless teenage wrestler Nitika Sansanwal all set for Asian Games selection trials

Delhi’s teenage international wrestler, Nitika Sansanwal, has been working extra hard to prepare for the weekend Hangzhou Asian Games selection trials in wrestling. The national trials will be held here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex on Saturday (July 22) and Sunday (July 23) in both men's and women’s categories.

The 17-year-old college-going wrestler said national selection trials will give her an opportunity to measure her strength with the best in the business and evaluate her performance.

“For the past two months I’ve been practicing for over six hours a day in two sessions,” Nitika told Sportskeeda after her Thursday’s practice session at Delhi government run wrestling training center in the south west part of the city.

The Delhi teenager will compete in women’s 62kg. It will be her first senior-level competition. But she is ready to face more experienced rivals, including Rio Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik of Haryana and Tokyo Olympian Sonam Malik. Experienced Manisha will be another formidable rival she will be facing in the national selection trials scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

“I’ve been working to fine tune my techniques. I’ve also improved my counter-attack skills,” Nitika disclosed.

The trials will be conducted by an ad-hoc panel set up by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to oversee the day-to-day functioning of wrestling in India.

Since February this year, things have been going in the right direction for Nitika who will turn 18 in December. The past four-five months have been quite productive for me in terms of performance on the mat, she revealed.

In March, she won gold at the Khelo India Youth Games in Bhopal and recently dominated the Khelo India University Games held in Uttar Pradesh. Nitika also won bronze at the Asian U23 Wrestling Championship held in June in Kyrgyzstan.

“I’m hopeful of a good result during the Asian Games trials,” Nitika said. “It will be a good opportunity for me to test myself in the first senior level competition (read trials).”

Nitika has been practicing wrestling for the past five years and she is highly disciplined, national wrestling coach Virender Dahiya said.

“Staying focused has been her fundamental strength,” Dahiya added. “She has been able to balance her academics and sports, which gives her an additional advantage to take quick decisions during matches.”