Balasaheb Aware, a farmer from Beed, in the dry heart of Maharashtra need not wonder about his son any more. Balasaheb knew that Rahul was a world class wrestler capable of winning medals but couldn't understand why, competition after competition, the medal had never arrived. On Thursday, finally, a decade since Rahul was identified as an outstanding fighting talent, there will be no more questions. Balasaheb's son won India's first wrestling gold at the Gold Coast Games in a performance of ferocity and confidence defeating Canadian Steven Takahashi in the 57kg event.
The wait for a major international medal has taken Aware ten years, two surgeries and one 18-month gap between being denied a place in the Olympic Games squad and finding himself atop the Gold Coast podium. Aware is a six-time 61kg national champion who competes in the "Olympic" weight category of 57kg at major global events like the world championships and multi-discipline games, like the CWG. The last six months have marked a turnaround in his fortunes, which for the last few years had been dogged by a combination of injuries, and as many in his home state of Mahatrashtra believe -- politics at the highest level of Indian wrestling.
Aware's renewal and return to centre-stage began with victory in the competitive inter-railway event in October 2017, a sixth national title in November, and winning the CWG trials in December. He is now part of the JSW Sports stable, after having been scouted and identified by Ramdhar Yadav as a teenager. In 2014, it was Yadav, now a manager of the JSW sports excellence programme, who steered Aware through surgeries to his knee and hamstring and put him back on the path to competition. "Rahul is a very dedicated competitor, quiet and works without making a fuss. It is how he has come through his injuries and fought hard to see this day. He is capable of greater feats and going higher in his career," Yadav says.
Given that he is 26, Tokyo 2020 will be his biggest chance for a place in the history books. This CWG victory however will banish the ghosts of Rio 2016 from his mind. The episode around Rio boiled down to a head-to-head contest between Aware and his closest competitor Sandeep Tomar for qualification as the single contestant in the 57kg class. In one of three qualifying events, where only the top two went through to Rio, Aware had finished third. Rather than sending him to an easier qualifying event in Mongolia where all finalists went through, Aware was ignored and Tomar, against whom Aware had a better head-to-head, was sent instead. Tomar went to Rio while Aware stayed back home.
Rather than believing he would never get a second chance, Aware put his head down and kept training, competing and waiting for his moment. In the open trials for the Gold Coast Games, Aware went past the rest of his serious 57kg competitors - Amit Dahiya, Utkarsh Kale and, to no one's surprise Tomar once again.
Aware belongs to the Maharashtra tradition of wrestling, his first coach Harishchandra Birajdar based in its citadel, Kolhapur. He currently trains in Pune under international wrestler Kaka Pawar at the International Wrestling Complex. Other than Narsing Yadav in Delhi 2010, Aware became the first wrestler from the Mahatrashtra heartland to win a CWG gold after Ram Chander Sarang (48kg) at Brisbane in 1982. Along with answering his father's question, Thursday's gold medal will also fulfil a promise Aware made to his first coach - that of an international medal. Tonight no doubt, Rahul Aware will be dreaming that he will win many more.