Indian Wrestling Thread ...

[Tolamu]

All 5 in action today failed to qualify for Rio.
Navjot(67kg) lost in R1.
Babita(53kg) won R1. But lost in QF.
Geeta(58kg), Anita(63kg) & Jyoti(75kg) won R1, but lost in PQF.

On the last day tomorrow, Sandeep(57kg), Somveer(86kg), Satywart(97kg) & Sumit(125kg) will try their luck.

[Tolamu]

Vinesh was 400gm overweight at the weight-in. How careless! Didn't the team take a weighing machine. Gross!

[sameerph]

Yes, it is careless and it seems she is warned by WFI for this -

Overweight wrestler Vinesh Phogat chucked out from Olympic qualifying event

European wrestlers were too powerful for our other female wrestlers.

Now let us see if our male freestyle wrestlers can do something tomorrow.

[sameerph]

In mens freestyle 57 kgs, Sandeep Tomar has reached the SF. He won 10-0 in PQF against a good Turkish wrestler and then won 4-1 against a wrestler from Kyrgyzstan. 3 of the 4 wrestlers in semi finals will get the Rio quota. So, Sandeep is very close to a quota. He will play his SF in a short while against Hasanzada of Azerbeijan. If he wins that he will seal the quota.

If he loses, he will have to wrestle for a playoff for quota.

Our other 3 wrestlers all lost in PQF. Of these 3, only Satywart Kadian won a bout against a Chinese wrestler. He should won his PQF too against a German wrestler but became too defensive and lost with scores tied at 4-4.

[Tolamu]

Sandeep lost his SF bout. for the playoff.

[sameerph]

Hard luck for Sandeep. He was leading 8-6 with 15 sec to go. But, his opponent managed a takedown in last few mins to tie at 8-8 and he won as he had won the last point.

Now, he will have to first win the repachages round to get bronze and then fight with the other bronze winner.

2 wins needed now when he was just a few sec away.

[sameerph]

Sandeep easily beat Moldovan wrestler 10-0 within a couple of minutes to clinch the bronze medal. But, now there will be a play off between 2 bronze medal winners to get the Rio quota. So, he will wrestle with other bronze medal winner Ukraine's Andriy Yatsenko with winner taking the Rio spot.

[Akin44]

Sandeep won the quota after a 11-0 destruction over Ukrainian opponent!!! 4th wrestling quota!

[sameerph]

Yes, brilliant performance by Sandeep Tomar to destroy his Ukranian opponent.

He becomes the fourth Indian wrestler to get the quota for Rio olympics after Yogeshwar Dutt, Narsingh Tomar and Gro Roman wrestler Hardeep. At least salvages something for us in this tournament which has been otherwise disappointing.

[jaydeep]

Congrats to Sandeep Tomar for clinching very important Olympic quota ... Also with that he ends ongoing controversy of his selection over Rahul Aware.
Rahul again become unlucky for not getting chance in ongoing Olympic qualification tournament.

[sameerph]

Yes, there was some controversy regarding that. Rahul had beaten Sandeep Tomar in the trials before the Asian qualifying tournament. WFI announced that the winning wrestlers will be retained for all the 3 qualifying tournaments barring fall in performances. Rahul Aware failed to win the quota in the Asian olympics qualifiers and finished third. So, he was replaced by Sandeep Tomar at this event. I think this is fair considering Sandeep had won the gold in the Asian championships which were held just before the selection trails. So, he had proven his worth in an international tournament rather than selection trails. To me he was always a better candidate.

Still, there is bound to be some debate/ trials to select the wrestlers for 3 places in mens freestyle - Sandeep Tomar/ Rahul Aware/ Amit Dahiya for 57 kgs, Yogeshwar/ Bajrang for 65 kgs , Narsingh/Sushil for 74 kgs.

[srini]

Wrestling seems to be going in a messy route to olympics
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 045138.cms

[sameerph]

It appears a bit of overreaction. It is routine for wrestlers to skip inconsequential bouts once they have not qualified or after they have qualified. Anyway, from the perspective of Rio qualification, I think it matters only in case of Babita Phogat. Geeta appears to be over the hill or out of form and was beaten by Sakshi Malik in the trials. It does not matter for other 2 male wrestlers as they have no chance of qualifying.

The last chance for Rio qualifying comes over the weekend in the final qualification tournament in Turkey. Our chances do not appear very bright there. In mens freestyle, we have 3 wrestlers in 3 lower weight classes. There could be a chance for Satyawart Kadian in 97 kgs but others are not so hopeful.

In Greco-Roman, the Europeans are too strong and our best chance to qualify was from Asian qualifiers which Hardeep Singh grabbed.

I hope we have at least 1 or 2 qualifiers from among women. I had hopes in the lowest weight categories from Vinesh and Babita. Now, Babita is gone. Vinesh is still the best bet if she does not miss the weigh in again.

[Tolamu]

All 5 Greco-Roman wrestlers knocked out in R1 in Istanbul with no chance of qualifying for Rio. What a waste!

Tomorrow 6 women will try their luck.

[arjun2761]

Didn't have any hope in Greco-Roman. However, hope some of our women qualify especially in the lighter weight categories.