New Delhi, July 6th 2023: Raghav Jamwal, two time reigning national grappling champion and a well-known qualifier for the modern pentathlon at the 2015 Beijing Olympic Games, is gearing up to lead the national squad at the 2023 Grappling World Championships, which will be held from August 21 through August 24 in Warsaw Poland.
The combat athlete, who previously competed in Olympic qualifiers before earning two gold medals in three national grappling competitions in 2021, most recently helped his country win the Asian Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, in June.
The sportsman talks about India’s recent triumphs and how his unrelenting dedication to leading the national team enabled them to finish third at the Asian Championships by saying, “Under my leadership, India has taken home two gold, two silver, and twelve bronze medals. In terms of overall medal count, we came in third.”
The combat athlete has built a name for himself in a variety of combat sports, including winning bronze in the Muay Thai championships in 2022.
“I’ve been doing sports for a long time,” says the national grappling champion of his transition from the Olympics to contact sports “Ever since my family obviously thought I was crazy because I was switching to a new sport entirely from scratch when I was about 25 or 26.”
“However, I was then on the right side of the crowd,” he continues. I’ve been doing combat since I was fortunate enough to practice regularly with these guys at Cross & Fight Club. Siddharth Singh, my coach, is one of India’s finest grapplers and practitioners of jujutsu. Also my sister Ridhi who supports me and inspires me to do better”
When discussing his motivation for battle and desire to leave his imprint, Raghav reveals, “The World Championships would have at least fifty or sixty teams, but the Asian Championships would have about nineteen teams. I admire Russia since they are one of the world’s foremost grapple powers. Australia and Europe are also respectable in this area. I have a lot of competition, so this will be my first world championship and I am going to captain the Indian Team as well. Yes, we will be competing against at least forty to forty five countries, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
The combat athlete continues, “The Grappling Federation of India (GFI) is one of the top federations that is doing a lot. They are in charge of overseeing my training. The effort made by Mr. OP Narwal, President of GFI, has greatly aided in promoting the best grapplers on the Indian grappling scene.”
Additionally discussing his ideas about competing in national championships “I’ve participated in two national competitions so far, and I’m looking forward to the open competition at ADCC Abu Dhabi Combat Club. It will probably be in November. Although we have finished the year’s national events, there is still time”
The athlete also shared, “Combat has been incredibly useful for me; it has been a really humbling experience, capping up his chat with a swan song. The first time I trained in Thailand, I was choked out by a girl five times in five minutes, and I passed out. As a result, I began my fight training because it was really humbling and made me a better person overall.
Raghav Jamwal passed out from the Air Force Bal Bharti School. Completing his graduation from Delhi University after studying history from Delhi School of Arts and Commerce he is currently pursuing his MBA in Sports Management from Indian Institute of Management Rohtak (IIM Rohtak). Mr. Raghav Jamwal is also at present the community manager of Pokerbaazi
