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Yes, European Greco Roman wrestlers are too good. Our best chance for qualification in Greco Roman was in Asian qualifiers where we got 1.

I do not feel much chance here in mens freestyle too as we already have wrestlers qualified in lower 3 categories. We are not so good in heavier categories.

The best chance would be in women where we have not had a qualifier so far. Best chance would have been Vinesh and Babita in the lowest 2 weight categories. But, Babita is not here. Hope Vinesh can perform well. She came so close to qualifying in Asian qualifiers and missing out altogether would be bad for her.

2 of the 6 Indian women wrestlers are thru to the QF.

In 48 kgs, Vinesh won her 2 bouts against a Ukranian and a French wrestler comfortably by 10-0 margins within 3-4 mintues.

In 58 kgs, Sakshi Malik got a first round bye and then beat her Spanish opponent within 2 minutes.

Our other 4 wrestlers are out of contentions though. 3 lost in first round and one in second round.

Both Vinesh and Sakshi Malik thru to the SF with convincing wins. Vinesh beats a Korean 11-1 and Sakshi beats a Romanian 12-2 with both bouts ending before full time.

Both are 1 win away from Olympic quota now.

And Vinesh Phogat destroys her opponent from Turkey 12-2 to win a quota for Rio.

Sakshi's SF bout coming up immediately.

And Sakshi beats her Chinese opponent in a close bout 11-10 to get the second womens wrestling quota for us.

I had fair expectations from from Vinesh but this is a pleasant surprise.

Congratulations to both the girls for making it count

Vinesh won gold, but Sakshi settled for silver..

Yes, Vinesh easily beat her Ukranian opponent 7-0 to win the gold. She showed that she was by far the best wrestler here and should actually have qualified much earlier. Now, that she has done that I think she is a bright medal prospect for Rio as much as Yogeshwar Dutt and Narsingh Yadav on mens side.

Tomorrow, 3 of our men fight it out in heavier weight categories. I do not think much of a chance there unless someone gets inspired by today's performance by girls.

How strong was the field here? Trying to gauge Vinesh's medal prospects.

So, Sakshi Malik got in instead of Babita. Is she a better bet? Or is it that neither has any chance?

In fact Sakshi came in for Geeta . I think Babita would have had a good chance to get a quota in 53 kgs. It was stupid of our wrestling federation to drop her because of the reason of pull out from inconsequential bout.

I am not so hopeful of a medal from Sakshi but much more from Vinesh.

Sin Hombre wrote:How strong was the field here? Trying to gauge Vinesh's medal prospects.

The field was quite good although it must be said that best had already qualified. Still, I feel Vinesh has the talent to surprise us at Rio.

In the mens freestyle, of our 3 wrestler, Gopal Yadav and Hitendra lost their very first bout. But, in 97 Kgs, Mausam Khatri got a first round bye and then won 2 bouts - first one by technical fall within 2 mins against a Greek wrestler and then won a close QF 6-4 against a German wrestler.

So, he is into SF, 1 win away from Rio quota. He fights against a tough Mongolian wrestler in the SF with winner taking the quota.

Khatri lost in a close match 6-8 in the SF to the Mongolian and just missed out on the quota.

So, we will go to Rio with 6 wrestlers - 3 mens freestyle, 2 women and 1 from Greco Roman- 1 more than last time.

This is a nice detailed article on Narsingh Yadav vs. Sushil Kumar argument currently going on in wrestling circles in relation to Rio -

Sushil Kumar or Narsingh Yadav: Biggest question staring Indian wrestling ahead of Rio Olympics 2016

sameerph wrote:
So, we will go to Rio with 6 wrestlers - 3 mens freestyle, 2 women and 1 from Greco Roman- 1 more than last time.

Some good news coming in from wrestling world federation for us. There were failed dope tests for couple of Asian wrestlers in the Asian olympic qualfiers and as a result we get 2 additional quota places - 1 in Greco Roman 85kg. ( Ravinder Khatri) and womens 53 kg. ( Babita Kumari).

So, now we go to Rio with 8 quotas - 3 lower weights in both men and women freestyle and 2 in Greco- Roman.

There was a bit of bad luck in mens freestyle where there were 2 failed dope tests in European qualifiers ( by Ukraine and Belarus). But, UW allowed their 2 seprate wrestlers to participate in the last qualfiers and those 2 qualified too. The earlier failed tests meant wrestlers from Bulgaria and Kzg. Our wrestler Hitender had easily beat these 2 wrestlers at the third Olympic qualifier while winning bronze. Bad luck for him.

Anyway, with 8 wrestlers, hope we at least equal the couple of medals which we got at London.