Destined for greatness: Late starter Sujeet, with supercharged technical moves, makes Bajrang Punia’s weight class his own

Dayanand Kalal recalls a story that sounds perfectly normal in wrestling-crazy Haryana but would seem almost mythical anywhere else. “The day Sujeet was born,” he says, “I held him and declared, ‘If all goes well, he’ll win a medal at the 2024 Olympics. If not, we’ll aim for 2028’.”

That was November 5, 2002.

Sujeet missed the Paris Olympics after being stranded for two days at a flooded Dubai airport while en route to a crucial qualification tournament. Now, at 23, he’s the name everyone’s whispering as the build-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics gains momentum.

That reputation got another leg up on Monday night after Sujeet – a late bloomer and the very antithesis of a typical Indian pehelwan – won a gold/silver in the 65kg class at the Under-23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serb