The Sports-India Community

WFI seems to have made up its mind to go ahead with Narsingh over Sushil in the 75 kg category. To drop an athlete like Sushil without providing with an opportunity seems unfair to me. The guy has proved himself at the big stage and instead of thinking of doing the rightful thing, the federation should look to select the medal prospect. Having said that, I am certainly not concluding that Sushil is more capable than Narsingh but Sushil's performance at the last Olympics and the relative ease with which he reached the semis says volume of his character; hence trail (best of 3) seems a fair way to decide our entry.

I do not think So. Sushil had basically fought in 66 kg all his life and has hardly appeared in 74 kg . Further, he has not participated in any level of competition in past 2 years. On the other hand , Narsingh has won a medal at the highest level in this weight category in last 6 months. There will always be subjectivity in team selection and one cannot just select a player based on the results in domestic trials. My opinion would have been different if Sushil had participated in a few international tournaments in last 1 year and shown some positive results. He cannot just come out after a long absence and claim to be selected for Rio.

As you all must be aware, Sushil Kumar had taken his battle for being given a trial against Narsingh Yadav for Rio selection to the courts. Today, the courts decided in favour of Narsingh-

Olympic trial: Delhi High Court dismisses Sushil Kumar’s plea

I think a fair decision and Narsingh can now concentrate on trying to bring back a medal from Rio.

sameerph wrote: 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).

Babita's Rio participation hangs in balance as the banned Mongolian wrestler is cleared of doping.

No impact on her as per this clarification from UW-

United World Wrestling Announces Reinstatement of Olympic Qualifiers

All National Olympic Committees previously granted Olympic qualification spots will not be impacted by this adjustment.

So, it looks they will just increase the participants by those who are reinstated. A fair decision as those like Babita would have prepared for Rio in last couple of months after the decision was announced.

In a big blow !'Rio-bounNarsingh fails dope test', not sure if in this case he can be replaced by Sushil or not..

Shocking ....

Narsingh claims conspiracy!!

Impressive performance by our under 17 wrestlers in the world cadet championships held in Georgia last week. We finished with 2 golds, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. I think that was among top 6 or so among all nations.

These are the details of the medals earned by Indian wrestlers -

Freestyle Men's

46 kg :- Swapnil Shelar - Silver
54 kg :- Ravinder Singh - Bronze
85 kg :- Deepak Punia - Gold
100kg:- Viky - Bronze

Women's Freestyle
33 kg :-Manisha - Gold
40 kg :-Mansi - Silver
60 kg :-Anshu -Bronze

We did not win anything in Greco Roman but a couple of boys lost in bronze medal matches.

So, nice to know that there is a good crop of talent coming up in wrestling in post Sushil-Yogeshwar era. Especially glad to see medal winners in mens 85 kgs and 100 kgs. We have struggled to do anything in heavier weight categories at world or even Asian level in recent times.

Good to see the new wrestlers do well at the U-17 level.

Not as excited about the heavier weight Indians as we typically don't do as well in those categories. As these junior athletes develop, I suspect the Indians will not be able to develop the muscle mass/strength which will come into play in the heavier weight categories. Our best hope remains in the lighter to medium weights where the weight restrictions come into play and minimize that factor.

Some of our past greats like Satpal, Kartar etc. were in heavier weight categories. But you may be right . They were very good as Asian level but could not clinch medals in Olympics.

But, at least we need to get back to being good at Asian level in heavier weights and in that sense these results are encouraging.

I think Asian wrestling standards have gone up with the former Asian former Soviet countries now competing in Asia. However, we have won a bronze in some of the heavier categories in more recent Asian games, so we may still have a chance at the heavier weight categories.

Can we get WADA to retest some of the Asian Games samples?

This kid Deepak Punia who won gold in 85 kgs. overcame wrestlers from Kyrgysatan, Georgia, USA, Poland and Turkey to win. He needs to be nurtured well.

This is a nice story on him by Vinay Siwach of Indian express -

Haryana milkman’s son Deepak Punia is world wrestling cadet champion

So at the end of the day, Kudukhov keeps his medal despite testing positive. Kudukhov not stripped of medal There are some legal issues with Kudukhov being dead and not being able to defend himself. But, imho, the right thing would have been to strip him of the medal. Justice deserved it. Oh, well!