‘Sonam Malik likes to play to her strength’

Sonam Malik is one of the brightest upcoming wrestlers from India. The 19-year-old will compete in the 62kg category at Tokyo 2020 in what will be her maiden Olympic appearance.

She made the cut for the Olympics in the second week of April this year by reaching the finals of the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Almaty and was the youngest Indian to do so.

Kazakhstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova had a 6-0 lead in the opening 30 seconds of the bout and with Malik landing awkwardly on her right knee, the odds were stacked against the Indian. However, she reversed her fortunes and eventually won 9-6 to stun the experienced Kazakhstan wrestler.

However, due to the knee injury sustained, Malik had to skip a couple of competitions and the foreign camp which would have further honed her skills ahead of the Olympics.

Her personal coach Ajmer Malik was disappointed that they couldn’t prepare in the best possible manner. Sonam Malik was recuperating and training at the Netaji Subhash Chandra wrestling pit in Haryana’s Sonepat. Only in the second week of July, she joined the national camp under India coach Kuldeep Malik at the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Sonepat centre alongside fellow wrestler Seema Bisla.

“I feel sorry that I couldn't train her 100 per cent due to her injury. The satisfaction that a guru-shishya (coach-disciple) should have, we didn't achieve that because of injury,” Ajmer Malik told Olympics.com.

“Secondly, Gudiya (doll, as he refers to Sonam Malik) always wants to give her best, keeping in mind that no one should say that she didn't perform well. She always wants to give more than she has been taught,” he expressed.

Ajmer Malik stated that Sonam is a wrestler, who likes to play to her strengths and has worked a lot on her upper body as she maintained her fitness levels while recovering from the knee injury, which checked her lower body movement to an extent.

“Sonam (Malik) likes to play to her strength. That is her biggest advantage. Due to her knee injury, we trained her upper body more, which can be used to grapple and hold the opponent from behind,” he explained.

The only concern Ajmer had was that Sonam shouldn’t feel the weight of expectations on her shoulder. She has defeated Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sakshi Malik on four occasions and comprehensively, and many believe that the 19-year-old will certainly add to India’s medal tally at the Olympics.

“Sonam (Malik) was training with me before she went to her India camp. Her activity and training still has some childishness. She took pressure with the thought that 'I'm going to represent India (at Olympics). What if I lose, how will everyone react?'

“She is doing proper training but there is a bit of childishness in her which can affect at the Games,” she shared his thoughts on his protégé.

Sonam (Malik) likes to play to her strength. That is her biggest advantage. Due to her knee injury, we trained her upper body more, which can be used to grapple and hold the opponent from behind.

When will Sonam Malik begin her campaign at Tokyo 2020?

Malik will begin her campaign in the women's freestlye 62kg Round of 16 on August 3.