Antim Panghal, India’s first-ever U-20 world

Antim, the last girl child of her family, becomes India’s first female wrestler to win world U20 gold
Antim didn’t just win gold, she dominated the women’s 53kg field at Sofia, Bulgaria. She also beat the European Champion Olivia Andrich by technical superiority in the competition.
His daughter, Antim, is on the verge of creating history later in the day, but Ram Niwas Panghal insists he isn’t nervous. This is hard to believe as he says this between astringent puffs of the stick of Dumru brand beedis that he’s chain-smoking throughout Friday evening at his home on the outskirts of the Haryana city of Hisar. His wife, Krishna Kumari, is less circumspect. She insists she isn’t planning to watch her daughter compete in the final of the Junior Wrestling World Championships. “Bada dar lagta hai (I am scared),” she admits sheepishly. She finds it safer to stick to routine, and heads to milk the family’s half tonne murrah buffalo that, having weaned its calf, has recently developed an unpleasant habit of kicking anyone handling its nethers.
Come 8.45 pm - around 615pm in Sofia, Bulgaria - and Ram Niwas's nerves aren’t doing much better. With his wife unwilling to watch the bout at home, he’s gone to a local communications centre. It doesn’t help though that the mobile internet on the computer he hopes to watch his daughter’s final bout on is - to put it politely - spotty. The room he’s in is a non-smoking one, so, Ram Niwas chews his towel compulsively.
While you can understand why, Ram Niwas needn’t have worried. The screen buffers and reloads in fits and starts in Hisar, but in Sofia, Antim Panghal isn’t in any trouble. She coasts to an 8-0 win over Kazakhstan’s Altyn Shagayeva, creating history as the first Indian woman to win gold at the junior world championships.
As his daughter takes a (buffered) victory lap with the Indian flag, Ram Niwas makes a confession. “You know I was a little worried,” he admits, surprising absolutely no one. "Bajrang Bali ki kripa se sab thik ho gaya (By the grace of Bajrang Bali, everything turned out all right)." Bajrang Bali (Lord Hanuman) is the go-to Hindu deity of most people connected with wrestling.
Her parent’s nervousness and the daughter’s historic achievement is in stark contrast to how things were at the Panghal’s home more than 17 years ago when Antim was born. It’s fair to say that back then, Antim wasn’t what her parents had hoped for. That’s literally how she got her name.
In August 2004, Ram Niwas and Krishna Kumari, in the village of Bhagana in Hisar district, were blessed with their fourth child. They had already had three daughters. All three had typical North Indian names. Sarita (meaning river) preceded Meenu (a synonym for Goddess Lakshmi) who in turn was followed by Nisha (meaning the night). Their fourth child - another daughter - was named Antim. The name translates into final or last. In their case, It symbolised the desire not to have any more girl children.
Ram Niwas doesn’t think too much of it, but there is a touch of irony in his naming choice. His Antim is the first Indian girl to stand atop the podium of the Under-20 world championships in the 34-year history of the competition
Unconditional support
While it might seem an archaic cultural belief, the desire for fewer girl children is strong enough in Hisar, which has a sex ratio of just 872 females per 1,000 males - one of the worst amongst Indian districts - for it not to seem unusual.
“After three girls, we really wanted a boy. It’s the custom in our villages that if you have a lot of girls, you give them a name like Antim (final) or Kaafi (enough) so that you don’t have any more. I’ve never really thought much about it,” says Ram Niwas. Incidentally, another of Antim’s teammates in the Indian junior teams is named Bhateri (no more, please). “It’s just a custom. If you have a lot of girls, it’s usually very hard to manage, especially if you aren’t very well off. There was a fear on how you would provide for their upbringing and then how you would manage their wedding. At least that was the thinking,” says Ram Niwas.
While his choice of a name for his daughter might suggest a father indifferent to his daughter's future, that’s far from the truth. “I owe everything to my parents,” Antim told Sportstar a few weeks ago.
Indeed, while they might not think too deeply about social naming customs that seem regressive, the support of Ram Niwas and his family has been critical in Antim going from strength to strength.

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