Madhya Pradesh’s teenage Greco Roman wrestler Mahesh Rathore dedicates gold medal to his late mother

Wrestler Mahesh Kumar Rathore is the son of a farmer from the Indore district in Madhya Pradesh. He won a gold medal at Ranchi's U16 National Wrestling Championship on Thursday. His silverware came in the Greco Roman 67kg category.

In an emotional tribute, Mahesh dedicated the medal to his late mother, who passed away last year after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

Anil Rathore, the father of the young champion, spoke about the pain the entire family has gone through and how his children navigated the difficult situation.

“It was a painful experience for Mahesh and his elder sister Hansaben when they lost their mother last year due to Covid-19 on December 16,” said Anil. “It was challenging situation for the family. But after a fortnight I did manage to control my emotions and asked Mahesh and his sister to get back to practice.”

Despite losing a massive pillar from their lives, both Mahesh and Hansaben showed incredible courage to get back to practice.

Earlier in July this year, 16-year-old Hansaben represented India at the World Sub-Junior Wrestling Championships held in Hungary. Her brother has now joined her in making their family proud.

“I had to motivate my kids to practice wrestling and work at the farm. I had to take care of their diet, rest and education. Today (December 16) is a great day for me. All the hard work paid off as my son has won a gold medal at the national level,” said the proud father.

The problem of overage wrestlers

Overage wrestlers are a fast-growing problem in age group competitions in almost all disciplines in India.

Despite strict measures, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) had to disqualify as many as 50 overage wrestlers during the ongoing U15 National Wrestling Championship. The news was confirmed by Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of WFI.

The three-day U15 National Wrestling Championship concluded on Friday.