Bhavika Patel: Carrying the hopes of Gujarat’s wrestling legacy at U-23 World Championships

It is not without a hint of anxiety with which Bhavika Patel, 22, steps onto the wrestling mat in Tirana, Albania on Wednesday for her first match of the Under-23 World Championships. The new pair of wrestling shoes she’d bought just a couple of months ago tore and Bhavika didn’t have the 8,000 rupees needed to replace them. So, instead, she’s taped up her boots and will hope they last the duration of the competition.

It’s not the ideal situation for going into a competition, but Bhavika knows a thing or two about beating the odds. Even before she competes in her first bout in Tirana, she is creating a bit of history. Born and raised in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, she will be the first woman from the west Indian state to be wrestling for India at the U-23 World Championships.

The fact that a girl from Gujarat even made it to the national team is remarkable. Unlike states like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and even Maharashtra, Gujarat doesn’t have any real tradition in the sport. Bhavika is familiar with drawing raised eyebrows whenever she competes at the national level.

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“People ask  Gujarat mein bhi log kushti karte hain? (Is there even wrestling in Gujarat). When they look at their draw at the national competitions and they see a girl from Gujarat in their bracket, they’d think they have an easy match,” she tells Sportstar from Tirana.

While Gujarat might not have had much of a wrestling culture, this was not entirely true for Bhavika. Her father Punvasi Jagram Patel had developed an interest in wrestling in his childhood. Although he had been good enough to be admitted to the Sports Authority of India centre in Gandhinagar, he quit the sport at the age of 22. “ Ismein itna scope nahi tha toh dhande mein aa gaya (There wasn’t that much future in the sport, so I got into the business line),” he says.

The business Jagram Patel started was a shop in Amraiwadi where he operated a flour mill out of the front of his house. In the evenings, he would coach kids interested in wrestling at a nearby school. When she was nine-years-old, Bhavika joined a class and stuck to it. After a few years of being coached by her father, she developed a strong work ethic and it was clear to him that she wouldn’t progress any further under him.

That’s when he enrolled her at the Sports Authority of Gujarat Wrestling Academy in Nadiad.

It was there that Bhavika first met coach Ramesh Kumar. Originally from Bhiwani, Haryana, he had wrestled at the national level winning a silver at the Inter-University championships. However, his interest lay in coaching. After completing his diploma from the National Institute of Sport (NIS) in Patiala, Ramesh was searching for a job when he came across and applied for an opening in Gujarat.

No sports culture

Hailing from sports-crazy Haryana, Ramesh says he was initially aghast when he came to the wrestling academy in Nadiad. “There was next to no sports culture at a sports academy! The youngsters weren’t motivated. They didn’t have any expectation that they could accomplish anything,” he recalls.

One of the few exceptions, he says, was Bhavika. “If the other kids were lazy, she was the opposite. It was really difficult to calm her down. She was like a small bull in her temperament. She would just rush at everyone. He,r entire face was covered with bumps because she would go so hard in sparring training. I’ve never seen her distracted her entire life, ” he recalls.

It was that sheer bloody-mindedness that saw Bhavika perform above the level people expected of her. In 2017, she won a silver medal at the School Games – a result that only whetted her appetite. Her biggest medals though would come as a senior.

“She got by on her aggression and hard work as a junior. But we have been working on her technique for the last few years and the real effect has come in the senior category only,” says coach Ramesh.

In 2022, she won a silver at the National Championships in Gonda and followed that up with a bronze at the National Games in Goa. This year she won another silver at the U-23 National Championships which earned her a call to the selection trials for the U-23 World Championships which she won to book her place in Tirana.

“The same girls who once saw Gujarat in their bracket and thought I’d be an easy opponent now know my name and know that it is very hard to beat me,” she says.

While her progress as a wrestler has been steady, there has been no shortage of challenges she’s had to face. While Bhavika has made her mark as a wrestler, there’s still a shortage of others like her. This means that sparring partners are hard to come by. “She has to train with men at our academy because there are no girls of her level,” says coach Ramesh Kumar.

Harder obstacles

Other obstacles have proved harder to overcome. While the Sports Authority of Gujarat paid for Bhavika’s stay in the hostel and also paid for two surgeries she got on her knees in 2022, the cost of her kit and nutrition has to be borne by her. “It can get very difficult because my shoes cost between 5000 and 10000 rupees and I need two or three pairs every year. I

“It’s my father who makes sure I get what I need. He only makes about 15,000 rupees every month and I have four siblings but he’s always done his best to provide what I need,” she says.

Her father Jagram doesn’t make too much about this. “She’s making me proud as a father. If I don’t have money, I’ll borrow what I need. If I have to cut expenses for the rest of the family, I’ll do that. At other times I have a lot of friends in the sports field and they will sometimes give kit and other equipment,” he says. However, this wasn’t possible before the U-23 World Championships.

While Bhavika might get through this particular championship, coach Ramesh admits it’s not the best situation for a wrestler to compete in. “She has a lot of motivation and courage. It will help her a lot if she gets some financial support. I am very confident if her financial requirements are taken care of, she will be one of the top contenders for the Indian team at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Despite the less-than-ideal cards she’s been dealt, Bhavika is full of optimism about the future. “I’m the first girl from Gujarat to compete at the U-23 world championships but that isn’t all I want to achieve. I am currently competing in the women’s 55kg category but I will want to compete in the (Olympic) 53kg category in the senior level.

“I want to make a name for myself in the Olympic weight category for India. I want to tell girls from Gujarat that like me they can also make it. It doesn’t matter if you are a girl from Gujarat and trying to make a name for yourself in wrestling. If you work honestly and consistently, good things will happen for you. If you don’t get it today, you will get it eventually,” she says.