After ending India's agonising wait for an Olympic medal at the Rio Games with a bronze medal, Indian women wrestler Sakshi Malik said it was the result of her 12 years of persistent hard work. "Meri 12 saal ki tapasya rang layi (It's the result of my 12 years' fight for day and night). Geeta didi, my senior had qualified for the first time in london," Sakshi said, with tears of joy in her eyes.
"It's in the women's section, we have got the first medal for India," said an ecstatic WFI president Brij Bhushan even as he hugged her in joy.
On her defensive approach that saw her trailing 0-5, Sakshi said: "I never gave up till last, I knew I would win if I lasted till six minutes. In last round, I had to give my maximum, I had the self belief. It was an agonising two-three hours wait for me. Congra-tulations to my country mates, I could live up to their expectations."
"There were some people at that time who opposed the girls opting for wrestling," her coach Ishwar Singh Dahiya recalls. "But I never believed in not giving training to girls so I trained Sakshi. Today you see a local girl made the country proud by winning a medal at Rio Olympic games."
On Sakshi’s strongest point, 60-year-old Dahiya said, "double leg attack is the strongest point of Sakshi in wrestling to tame her opponent."