Proud feeling of receiving Arjuna Award, says Pooja Dhanda

Norway's Grace Jacob Bullen (blue) and India's Pooja Dhanda (yellow) compete during the semifinal of women's freestyle wrestling -57kg category at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary on October 25, 2018.

Indian wrestler Pooja Dhanda, who is set to receive the Arjuna Award, says she is proud on receiving the honour and is pumped up to bring more achievements for the country.

"Arjuna Award is every budding sportsperson's dream as it is a return gift from the government when we perform well for the country. I'm feeling proud and will work hard towards winning more medals for the country," Dhanda told ANI.

Dhanda won the silver medal in the Commonwealth Games 2018 at Gold Coast. The 25-year-old said competition in the wrestling is increasing day-by-day and they are training accordingly.

"Day-by-day competition is increasing and according to that we are training and becoming better. We will try doing better in the upcoming events and Olympics," Dhanda said.

Dhanda said country expects medals from wrestling in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and for that she is training hard.

"From last three games, wrestling is the only game-winning consecutive medals for the country in Olympics so it is justified to have expectations from the game and this time also we will try to bring medals for the country," Dhanda said.

"Ahead of World Championships, we will attend a preparatory camp at Kazakhstan to adapt to the environment. My aim is to bag a medal of India in Olympics," she added.

Apart from Pooja Dhanda, Indian women's cricketer Poonam Yadav is also set to be bestowed with the Arjuna Award. "Every athlete feels proud when you get Arjuna award. I always dreamt of winning the Arjuna award, I have struggled a lot. When I found out about the accolade, I was not able to believe it. I was very happy when I found out about it," Yadav told ANI.

"It is the biggest achievement for any sportsperson. My journey has been very long, I have struggled a lot, I was criticised a lot, many people wrote me out. People had expectations of me, probably that is the reason why they used to find flaws in my game," Poonam Yadav added.

With inputs from ANI

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