‘I was choked out by a girl five times in five minutes, and I passed out’, recalls national champ Raghav Jamwal

New Delhi July 8 Raghav Jamwal, two-time reigning national grappling champion, is gearing up to lead the national squad at the 2023 World Championships, which will be held from August 21 through August 24 in Warsaw Poland.

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 continued. 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"

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. 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.”