Sushil among four selected without trials
NEW DELHI: Four top wrestlers, including Sushil Kumar, have been exempted from appearing in the selection trials and will get a free passage to the Asian Games team in Jakarta.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Monday selected double Olympic Games medallist Sushil (74kg), Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik (women’s 62kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Vinesh Phogat (women’s 52kg) for the Asian Games without holding any trials in these categories.
Except Sakshi, all three wrestlers have won gold medals at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Sakshi settled for a bronze.
WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said the four wrestlers are ‘medal contenders’ in the continental event and competing in the national trials will hamper their preparations.
“They are our top wrestlers and medal contenders. Trials will be a distraction for them. Therefore it has been decided to select them without holding trials in these categories,” Tomar said.
He said WFI has spoken to the coaches in the camp and taken their feedback before making up their mind. “
It will be meaningless to push them for trials. There is nobody in the domestic scene currently to push them. The feedback from the coaches in the camp indicates that. We don’t want them to take a break from training,” Tomar added.
The feedback is based on the performance of wrestlers in the last three major internationals including Commonwealth Games and Asian Wrestling Championships held at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.
Other wrestlers attending the national camp however, will have to go through the routine selection process to earn their berths for the Asian Games. The selection trials in men’s freestyle and Greco roman will be held on June 9 at Sonepat, while trials in the women’s category will take place on June 10 at Lucknow.
According to WFI, Sushil’s main challenger Parveen Rana is yet to fully recover from a knee injury.
The trials for the Commonwealth Games had turned ugly with supporters of Sushil and Parveen engaging in a brawl inside the stadium and police had to be called.