In his more than three-month stint with India’s freestyle wrestlers, Georgian coach Shako Bentinidis appears to have learnt the art of survival in the Indian setup.
He has added Hindi words such as “bhai bhai”, “namaste”, “pahalwan” and “dangal” to his vocabulary, which has made him popular with the wrestlers.
He is among the busiest and most animated figures in a crowd of 40-50 wrestlers who train there every day, alongside the Indian coaches and five-time world champion Gogi Koguashvili, the foreign head coach of India’s Greco-Roman team. Shako, who helped Bajrang Punia win an Asian Games gold in 2018, World Championships medals and the big Tokyo Olympics bronze, parted ways with him in 2021. Shako is a different man inside the huge wrestling auditorium at the Sports Authority of India’s centre here. He has returned to India now as coach of the freestyle team. He praises the current Indian team but stresses that more high-quality training partners and longer camps are essential if India is to convert its potential into consistent medals at the senior level. Indian wrestlers spent nearly a month abroad. The team first camped and competed in Armenia before moving to the Russian city of Vladikavkaz. “When you compete at the same level, against the same level of competitors, it changes your mindset. Having spent around three months with the squad, Bentinidis is pleased with their wrestlers’ progress and character. He singles out Sagar Jaglan for his fighting spirit.
“I love speaking Hindi words, especially ‘bhai bhai’, as everyone here calls each other with this word and it looks quite easy for everyone,” Shako told HT before beginning the interaction in Lucknow. Shako says the team had good preparation for the Asian Games. Shako describes the city as having a “legendary” status for producing Olympic champions. It gives you the mentality of a champion,” he said. “Sometimes he loses, but he fights until the last second,” he said. “We need to train very hard, but we also have to manage injuries and give them good competition experience,” he said.
