Honey Pal at Gulzar Akhada in Zirakpur after winning the gold medal in Khelo India University Games. (Photo credit: Jaipal Singh)
In 2009, when a young Honey Pal Singh came to join his cousin for training at the Gulzar Akhara in Zirakpur, it also meant that the then nine-year-old Singh had to stay away from his parents. While Singh’s family resided in their native village of Khajala in Amritsar district, it was Singh’s love for wrestling which made the family send a young Singh to train at Zirakpur. Earlier this week, Singh won the gold medal in the men’s Greco-Roman 63 Kg category in the Khelo India University Games at Bhubaneswar, Odisha and the 19-year-old youngster remembered his time away from his family.
“My cousin Prabhpal Singh was very fond of wrestling and I would watch him train at our village. When he decided to train at Zirakpur, my parents also decided to send me to train along with him. While my uncle Balwinder Singh stayed with us for one year, Prabhpal and I stayed at the Akhada starting 2010. Even though I would visit my family occasionally, it was tough staying away from my parents. But I knew that training is important and whatever I was doing was to follow my dream. Winning the gold medal in Khelo India University Games is reward for all those years of training and when I visit my parents to show the medal to them, it will be a special feeling for them,” shared Singh while talking with Chandigarh Newsline.
With his father Shingara Singh working as patwari in Baba Bakala tehsil in Amritsar district; Singh would watch village dangals apart from playing hockey at his village in his childhood. After shifting to Zirakpur in 2009, Singh would train in freestyle category and won his first medal at the national level in the form of a bronze medal in U-14 35 Kg category in the School National games at Delhi.
The youngster won two more bronze medals in the School National Games in 2013 and 2016 respectively before he decided to shift to opt for Greco-Roman wrestling. The shift also came six months after he suffered a career-threatening knee injury and underwent an operation in 2017. The same year saw him winning the bronze medal in 67 Kg in School National Games before he emerged as the national champion in 63 Kg category in the Sub-Junior Nationals held in Andhra Pradesh.
Singh also competed in the World Sub-Junior Wrestling Championships in Greece in 2017, where his campaign ended early. The youngster won the bronze medal in 67 Kg category in Junior National Wrestling Championship at Jaipur in 2018 before reaching the semi-finals in the 67 Kg category in the Senior Nationals Wrestling Championship. Last year, Singh emerged as the 67 Kg champion in Khelo India Games before winning the gold medal in 63 Kg category in All India Inter-University Championship, Hisar.
Coach RS Kundu, who has been training freestyle as well Greco-Roman wrestlers at his akhada believes that Singh has improved a lot in recent years and his biggest strength has been his mental strength. “Honey Pal was a good wrestler in Freestyle category too but his main problem was that he could not score on leg attacks as well defending leg attacks. When he suffered the injury, it gave us time to think about making a change. Initially, I would make him watch the feet movement of Greco-Roman wrestlers and he has spent a lot of time on the basics of the technique. His biggest strength has been his mental strength and he needs to add more stamina in the coming years to excel at the senior level,” shared Kundu.