Followers of Indian mud-wrestling consider Jassa Patti a legend. He is, after all, undefeated for the last two years in dangals across India. When he landed in Pune for the first edition of the mud-wrestling nationals conducted by Wrestling Federation of India, he was considered the favourite.
This was because many top wrestlers in the 125-kg category had decided to give the tournament a miss. There was no Sumit Malik, Krishan Kumar or Satender Malik, who are considered as the cream of both mud and mat wrestling.
On offer were medals that would be considered equal to those from any national wrestling competitions, and cash awards of Rs 75,000 and 50,000 for the gold and silver medallists respectively. The two bronze medallists get Rs 25,000 each.
The setup was similar to the dangals in Maharashtra but the stars were certainly missing. While it was named traditional wrestling, there was hardly any ‘traditional’ way of wrestling apart from the fact that the surface was changed from mat to mud.
To win a bout, a wrestler still had to score points via takedown, throws or pin the opponent while not grabbing the langot, an essential part of mud wrestling.
But Jassa battled it all. He was on course of his first national title after winning his three bouts. There were cheers from the Pune crowd and the comments on the YouTube live feed that praised him equally.
The dhak, or the move where the wrestler throws his opponent over the shoulder, truly captured the power he possesses. The win over Rinku took him to the semis. Even before that, he had pinned down opponents from Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry.
The 25-year-old tried the dhak again in the semi-final. This time he failed. Vishal of Haryana never looked in troubled against Jassa, as all his attempts to score points failed. Vishal, popular in the dangal circle with a second name Mataniya, won 5-0 and later went on to win the 125-kg title as well, beating Rajan Tomar of Services.
Despite his loss, Jassa was introduced as “mitti ka badshah” (king of the mud) by the commentator in Marathi before his bronze-medal bout against Sanju Yadav of Chhattisgarh. He captured the bronze medal, pinning his opponent in just 13 seconds.
“Everyone came here to win but not everyone wins,” Jassa said. “Whatever god does, I am happy with it. I am not stopping here and will now focus more on freestyle.”
Freestyle continues to dominate Indian wrestling. Other than the 125 kg, most winners of other categories were wrestlers who have an equally good record on mats.
While Jassa ended up with a bronze medal, one of his close friends Sombir Kadian went all the way to claim the title in the 97 kg. As expected, the two best wrestlers of the category, Sombir and Satyawart Kadian, reached the final and it was the former who won 8-0.
It was a passivity caution against Satyawart that opened the scoring for Sombir, who led 1-0 at the break. Early in the second period, a foot sweep got him four points and he completed the win with two takedowns in the eight-minute bout.
An all-Maharashtra final in the 65-kg category got the crowd excited with Sonba and Suraj Kokate putting up a spectacle. The former was the superior of the two in the final, which ended with Sonba pinning Kokate. The two bronze medallists of the category were Jaideep of Railways and Vikash of Haryana.
In the 86-kg category, Parveen of Railways claimed the title with an easy win over Sanjeet of Services. Parveen aka Parveen Bhola in dangals had won the mat nationals as well just a month ago. The two bronze medals in this category went to Satheesh of Karnataka and Sajjan of Haryana.
Another mat wrestling regular Vinod Kumar won the 74-kg title by beating Pradeep of Delhi in the final. Praveen Malik of Haryana and Anuj of Delhi won the two bronze medals in the category.
The lightest weight category had Rahul of Jharkhand claim the top honours, with Harvinder of Punjab winning the silver. Two Maharashtra wrestlers, Joytibha and Vijay, won the two bronze medals.
