Sudhir Saha

Sudhir Saha was a wrestler, coach, and wrestling administrator in India. He introduced Greco-Roman wrestling in India.

Sudhir Saha was the youngest son of NandalalSaha and started wrestling at the age of six. SudhirSaha was trained by his father NandalalSaha, and subsequently by Ustad (meaning ‘expert’ in Hindi, a title commonly given to coaches) Majid Palwan from Lahore. Sudhir Saha won the West Bengal State Wrestling Championship from the year 1935 to 1944 in the freestyle wrestling category. In the 1940 Senior National Wrestling Championship, Sudhir placed first in the middleweight category. After his wrestling career, Sudhir devoted his time to coaching and judge/refereeing.

During his early coaching career, K.P. Rai and Nirmal Bose, from Panchanan Bayam Samity, one of India’s oldest wrestling clubs, represented India in the 1948 London Olympics. Four years later, the 1952 Helsinki Olympic training camp was held at Panchanan Bayam Samity. Two of Sudhir’s trainees, Nirmal Bose and Niranjan Das, from PanchananBayamSamity, represented India in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. One of Sudhir’s trainees, K.D. Jadhav, won the bronze medal in the Bantamweight category in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. This was independent India’s first individual Olympic medal.

In 1957, Sudhir Saha attended the first FédérationInternationale des LuttesAssociées (FILA) Judge/Referee clinic for technical officials in Paris, with the aim of officials coming together to discuss theory and practicals on wrestling techniques and minute details of officiating. This is where he obtained his international judge/referee license. Thus, he became India’s first international referee. In 1961, Sudhir Saha completed his International Coaching degree from Japan. He was also the Joint Secretary and Vice President of Wrestling Federation of India; General Secretary, West Bengal Wrestling Federation; and he was responsible for technical positions such as Mat Chairman, Member of the Selection Committee, Chairman of the Greco-Roman Style in India, and the Judge/Referee Association of India. He started his refereeing career in 1953, supervising more than 1500 wrestling bouts. In the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, Sudhir Saha represented India as a wrestling judge/referee.

Under his supervision, the first Greco-Roman-style wrestling competition was held in Calcutta at PanchananBayamSamity, one of India’s oldest wrestling clubs. In 1965, at his initiative, the Greco-Roman wrestling style was introduced in National Championship by the All India Wrestling Federation.

Achievements

During Sudhir Saha’s coaching tenure, the following wrestlers received the following medals in International and World Championships, including 12 medals in the 1962 Asian Games (3 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze medals) and winning the team championship in the 1966 Commonwealth Games, with all seven Indian wrestlers winning medals (3 Gold, 2 Silver, and 2 Bronze).

Below is a list of wrestlers and their achievements during Sudhir Saha’s coaching career.

Year	Place	Name	Competition	Style	Weight	Rank
1974	Christchurch	Sudesh Kumar	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	52	1
1974	Christchurch	Premnath	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	57	1
1974	Christchurch	Jagrup	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	68	1
1974	Christchurch	Raghunath Pawar	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	74	1
1970	Bangkok	Chandagi Ram	Asian Games	Freestyle	100	1
1970	Edinburgh	Ved Prakash	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	48	1
1970	Edinburgh	Sudesh Kumar	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	52	1
1970	Edinburgh	Udey Chand	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	68	1
1970	Edinburgh	Mukhtiar Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	74	1
1970	Edinburgh	Harish Chandra	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	82	1
1966	Kingston	Bishmbar Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	57	1
1966	Kingston	Mukhtiar Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	70	1
1966	Kingston	Bishmbar Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	+97	1
1962	Jakarta	Maruti Mane	Asian Games	Freestyle	97	1
1962	Jakarta	Malwa	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	52	1
1962	Jakarta	GanpatAndalkar	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	+97	1
1974	Christchurch	ShivajiChingle	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	62	2
1974	Christchurch	Satpal Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	82	2
1974	Christchurch	Netar Pal	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	90	2
1974	Christchurch	DaduChogule	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	100	2
1974	Christchurch	Viswanath Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	+100	2
1970	Bangkok	Jit Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	90	2
1970	Edinburgh	SajjanSingh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	90	2
1970	Edinburgh	Viswanath Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	100	2
1970	Edinburgh	Maruti Mane	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	+100	2
1967	New Delhi	Bishwambar Singh	World Championship	Freestyle	57	2
1966	Bangkok	Biswanath Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	97	2
1966	Kingston	Shyamrao Sable	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	57	2
1966	Kingston	Randhawa Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	63	2
1962	Jakarta	Udey Chand	Asian Games	Freestyle	70	2
1962	Jakarta	Sajjan Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	87	2
1962	Jakarta	GanpatAndalkar	Asian Games	Freestyle	+97	2
1962	Jakarta	Udey Chand	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	70	2
1962	Jakarta	Sajjan Singh	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	87	2
1962	Jakarta	Maruti Mane	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	97	2
1974	Tehran	Satbir	Asian Games	Freestyle	57	3
1974	Tehran	Satpal Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	82	3
1974	Tehran	Sukhchain	Asian Games	Freestyle	100	3
1974	Tehran	Sukhchain	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	100	3
1974	Christchurch	RadheyShyam	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	48	3
1970	Bangkok	Om Prakash	Asian Games	Freestyle	68	3
1970	Bangkok	Mukhtiar Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	74	3
1970	Bangkok	Netar Pal	Asian Games	Freestyle	82	3
1970	Edinburgh	Randhawa Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	62	3
1966	Bangkok	Shamrao Sable	Asian Games	Freestyle	52	3
1966	Bangkok	Bishambar Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	57	3
1966	Bangkok	V.Chad	Asian Games	Freestyle	70	3
1966	Bangkok	S.Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	87	3
1966	Bangkok	Bhim Singh	Asian Games	Freestyle	+97	3
1966	Kingston	Hukum Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	78	3
1966	Kingston	Bishwanath Singh	Commonwealth Games	Freestyle	97	3
1962	Jakarta	Malwa	Asian Games	Freestyle	52	3
1962	Jakarta	Lakshmi Chand Gandey	Asian Games	Freestyle	78	3
1962	Jakarta	NarinGhume	Asian Games	Greco-Roman	57	3
1961	Yokohama	Udey Chand	World Championship	Freestyle	67	3
1972	Munich	Sudesh Kumar	Olympic Games	Freestyle	52	4
1972	Munich	Premnath	Olympic Games	Freestyle	57	4
1965	Manchester	Bishamber Singh	World Championship	Freestyle	57	4

During Sudhir’Saha’s coaching career, wrestlers and officials from PanchananBayamSamity represented the State of West Bengal and India in International Championships

Some Wrestlers and Officials are listed below –

Name	Achievements
Nirmal Bose	1948 and 1952 Olympics
K.P. Rai	1948 Olympics
Niranjan Das	1952 Olympics
ShyamSundarChatterjee	1953 World Youth Festival Games/ Gold- Indo/Japan Games 1953
Yogeswar Singh	1954 Asian Games - 5th
Robin Hazra	Gold - Indo -Ceylon meet - 1958
Tarkeswar Pandey	1956 Olympics
GupteshwarMisra	International Judge/Referee
Asit Kumar Saha	International Judge/Referee

As a coach, judge, and referee, Sudhir Saha represented India at different International Championships. Below are some of his achievements.

Year	Championship
1961	World Wrestling Championship, Yokohama, Japan
1963	India-USSR Meet, Moscow, USSR
1964	Olympic Games, Tokyo, Japan
1966	Commonwealth Games, Kingston, Jamaica
1966	India-Mexico Meet, Mexico City, Mexico
1966	India-England Meet, London, England
1967	World Wrestling Championship, Delhi, India
1971	Junior World Wrestling Championship, Tokyo, Japan