‘Pro Panja League Has Helped Put Arm Wrestling in India on The Map’: Kochi KD’s Chetna

For a sportsperson, the journey towards professional sport almost always begins from casual competition. Similar was the case for Armwrestling champion Chetna Sharma, who hails from Assam. In the Pro Panja League, Chetna turned out for the Kochi KD’s who were the eventual champions of the inaugural edition.

Chetna comes from a sporting background, and has always had the backing of her family when the conversations came to sports. A champion athlete in her school days, Chetna was introduced to arm-wrestling by her husband. Initially, Chetna’s interest levels in arm-wrestling were not very high but then came 2011.

“There was an arm-wrestling competition near my house in 2011, and after a bit of thought and convincing, I decided to take part. I didn’t win but that’s when my interest started to grow and then I started practicing, and I didn’t win initially also because I am not genetically gifted. I was a person who was very much into sports though,” Chetna said.

It took Chetna a couple of years of hard work and toil before she got her first significant triumph, and she explained that once she started her journey, she wasn’t going to give up.

“For the first couple of years, when I wasn’t winning it was tough, but I never thought about giving up. For me, it was always about giving it another shot. And then in the State Championship in 2013 is when I tasted success in Assam in the 53kg weight category.”

That encouraged Chetna, and she decided it was time to keep giving it her best shot. She performed well in the national competition and then was also a finalist in the Champion of Champions competition in 2013, which further motivated her. While Chetna had been competing in the domestic circuit, she believes that the Pro Panja League has been a lucky charm for her.

“When Season 1 of Pro Panja League began we didn’t know what was coming, apart from the fact that it was a tournament, and we wanted to win. But the experience of playing alongside others who weren’t from your region was really nice. It was great to win the first season of Pro Panja League, but from then to now, I have worked hard to improve on my weaknesses,” she quipped.

Chetna, who will compete in the 65kg category this year, is a software engineer by profession, and is coached by her husband Nayan Jyoti Bora. Speaking about the future of the sport, she said, “This sport has a good future, I have been seeing it from 2011, and there is constant improvement in the infrastructure. And PPL has played a big role in this. Now people want to take part in Armwrestling, instead of power lifting or any other sport. I feel in the next five years, the arm-wrestling story will be a very different one as compared to the current situation.”