Divya Kakran prioritises consistency over medals after UWW Ranking Series success-Sports News , Firstpost

Divya Kakran poses with the gold medal and Bolat Turlykhanov Cup in a file photo. Divya Kakran

“Divya ka ek daur tha, wo chala gya.” Harsh remarks like these pierced Divya Kakran’s heart when the young 23-year-old wrestler went through her first career slump that saw her battle COVID-19 and miss out on Tokyo Olympics berth. Enduring such potshots weren’t enough as the 2020 Arjuna Awardee also lost all her sponsors, forcing her to reconsider her wrestling career.

All that, however, changed in space of a month when Divya won her CWG trials and backed that up with her first international gold medal of the year at the prestigious Bolat Turlykhanov last week.

“This medal means a lot,” Divya told Firstpost on her return from Kazakhstan on Tuesday. “I had to work really hard to show my worth to everyone but myself. Winning the CWG trials was a confident booster but doing it on the world stage meant I have it in me.”

She was part of a successful Indian contingent which bagged 12 medals at the tournament with women wrestlers claiming eight of them (including five gold medals).

Proving doubters wrong

There were question marks over Divya’s form at the top level since her last appearance in the senior international arena was a disappointing seventh-place finish in the 72kg category of the World Championships last October. The Delhi grappler, however, proved her doubters wrong by not just clinching the gold medal but also improving her world ranking to No. 7 as she switched to 68kg category since it’s an Olympic weight category.

Divya defeated local girl Albina Kairgeldinova and Mongolia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan with little discomfort in a round-robin format before losing an inconsequential bout to Mongolia’s Bolortungalag Zorigt on her way to the gold. But what the wrestler takes away from the tournament was the importance of form.

“While now I feel my bad days are behind me, it gave me a valuable lesson that it’s my consistent performance that counts. Till 2020, I had sponsors, and respect because I was winning. But once the bad time came, sponsorships disappeared, lost respect as well. I had to call sponsors to help me out with funds to prepare for CWG trials but little help came my way. Now when I am doing well again, I feel things will change for good,” said the wresler, who got engaged earlier this year.

Sounding more determined than ever, Divya is now gearing up for the next UWW Ranking Series in 10 days time as the Indian wrestling contingent will head to Italy for the coveted Matteo Pellicone tournament (22-26 June) in pursuit of her ultimate aim – the season in Commonwealth Games, followed by World Championships.

“Despite the Asian Games being postponed, it’s still a busy year with CWG and World Championships being the main attractions. I aim to build on this good start on return and bag medals at the two big events. WFI has done the best for us wrestlers by sending us to many foreign exposure tours and quality competitions. I would like to make the most of it,” concluded Divya.

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