New Delhi, July 24
The much-anticipated return of Sushil Kumar to active competition will now happen next month. Sushil was to participate in the selection trials for the World Championships that is scheduled to be held on Friday.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has postponed the trial match in his weight category (74kg) after Sushil’s main contender Parveen Rana made a request for the same owing to an injury.
“Rana requested us to give him 10-12 days to recover,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar told The Tribune. “The trial for this weight category will now be held on the same date when trials for non-Olympics weight categories will be held.”
As per original schedule, WFI was to hold trials in six Olympics weight categories of the freestyle discipline — 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg and 125kg — on Friday. Due to the postponement, the 74kg trial will now be held in the second week of August along with the trials for the 61kg, 70kg, 97kg and 92kg weight categories.
“Those who fail in the Olympics categories will be allowed to take part in the second trial,” the WFI assistant secretary said.
Change in venue
Meanwhile, WFI has changed the trials venue from SAI’s Sonepat centre to New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium. WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said the change was needed because the Indira Gandhi Stadium has a bigger area to accommodate fans. “It gets difficult to host fans as the Sonepat facility is considerably smaller than the IG stadium,” Singh said.
“The change also helps the wrestlers. As per the earlier schedule they would have to wake up as early as 4 or 5 am in the morning for the weigh-ins for us to start the bouts by 7 am. Now they will get additional time before the bouts. Also it helps my schedule in the Parliament too. So all in all it is win-win for everyone,” Singh added.
Singh also rubbished reports that claimed that the referees were worried to officiate in Sonepat. “Let me tell you that there are no such fears. Whoever is raising this issue is lying. We have changed the venue to accommodate more fans only. There is no other reason,” he said.
History of violence
In December 2017, the wrestling trials for the 2018 Commonwealth Games turned into an unprecedented brawl after double Olympics medallist Sushil Kumar beat arch-rival Parveen Rana, triggering a clash between their respective supporters. Rana, after losing to Sushil in the semifinal clash, claimed that the decorated wrestler’s supporters beat him and his elder brother “for daring to take the ring” against him. Sushil, on the other hand, claimed that he had been bitten by Rana during the bout. Sushil, who was later booked by Delhi Police in connection with the clash, went on to win his third successive Commonwealth Games gold medal in Gold Coast.
