Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Nov 28 For someone who is all of 23 years old and has accomplished so much, that’s very unusual, and to some it may border on the unsettling. Still, for Indian wrestler Nishu, it's all about an unseen calmness about her.
At an age in which people laugh a lot and carry a carefree attitude towards life, she barely speaks, mostly a picture of serenity, even during her three bouts across two days that saw her win her first gold medal of Khelo India University Games (KIUG) in the 53kg category at the Lohagarh Stadium in the eastern city of Rajasthan on Thursday.
But once you speak to her, get to know her better, you kind of know that it is grief that has very likely shaped her personality. She lost an older brother (by one and a half years) to a brain tumour. While it happened quite a few years back when she was a little kid, such episodes in life often leave a pall of sobriety on the survivors forever.
On Thursday, Nishu, nurtured at SAI Training Centre in Hisar, just had to win her bout to ensure a gold, and boy, she did that in style! Just seconds into the bout, her opponent, Samruddhi Sandip Ghorpade from Shivaji Stadium, appeared to have no chance. In the 2023 KIUG, Nishu had won a bronze in Varanasi, so improving on that medal was a big deal for her.
“For me, every competition is important. You learn wherever you choose to play. Very happy to win this gold, now I have ticked this box,” she said after her win.
If truth be told, Nishu has many achievements to her name. She has won a bronze medal in the Under-23 World Championships for India in Serbia earlier this year, and although she failed to win a medal in another championship (for seniors this time) in Croatia, she impressed not a little, again, earlier this year. For an athlete like that to say that “every competition is important” speaks to her being a very grounded, ever-learning person.
Nishu, who has tasted gold success in the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) too, is grateful to her parents for being by her side through thick and thin. She doesn’t come from a farming family, as most athletes from Haryana do. Her father is a driver.
“My father and mother have always treated me as a son. They have been very supportive. Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t be here without their support. Whenever I needed money or other help, I don’t think they ever said no,” she said.
Nishu, who trains at SAI Training Centre in Hisar, is now targeting the Asian Games next year in Nagoya, Japan. For which she first has to make it to the National Camp on the basis of her performances in the Senior Nationals and Federation Cup. Irrespective of what happens there, the girl from Jind, without any wrestling history in the family, has come really far. And there is every indication that she is going to cover many more miles in the time to come.
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