Freestyle wrestling in free fall, four years after Sushil versus Narsingh
In 2016, India’s finest wrestler, twice Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, and Narsingh Yadav were at loggerheads to represent India in the 74kg freestyle category at the Rio Olympics. Narsingh won the quota for India, but Sushil also staked claim, petitioning the court to order a selection trial, which was turned down after the federation refused. Narsingh was cleared to compete only to fail a dope test. The end result was India went unrepresented in 74kg at Rio.
Cut to the Tokyo Olympics, and India are yet to qualify in the 74kg category. On Sunday at the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Sandeep Mann in the 74kg semi-final was no match for Iran’s Yones Aliakber Emamichoghaei, a world championship medallist, losing by a technical fall. Satyawart Kadian and Sumit Malik also disappointed, in 97kg and 125kg semi-finals respectively. Kadian’s was a blink-and-miss affair, also against an Iranian, Mohammadhossein Mohammadian, who took 30 secs to score 10 points and force the bout to be halted. In 125kg, Malik lost 2-0 to Kazakhstan’s Yusup Batirmurzaev. Three Indian freestyle wrestlers have so far qualified— Bajrang Punia ( 65kg), Ravi Dahiya (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg). The last opportunity to make the cut for Tokyo will be at the world qualifiers next month.
The focus will be back on 74kg where several aspirants have tried their luck in the last couple of years. The national selection trials in the weight class is the most crowded. Amit Dhankar, Parveen Rana and Jitender Kinha all have won medals at Asian meets but have been inconsistent. Young Gaurav Baliyan emerged a strong contender when he won the nationals in 2019, beating Rana. Jitender fought against Sushil in the selection trials for a berth in the 2019 world championships. In the next trials, with Sushil pulling out, Jitender won and followed it up with a medal at the Asian championships. But none have been able to dominate.
After the lockdown, 21-yearold Sandeep Mann surprised everyone by winning the senior nationals in 74kg, beating Jitender. The field included Dhankar and Narsingh Yadav, who was back after completing a fouryear doping ban. Mann showed the win was no fluke when he also won the selection trials against the same field, defeating Narsingh and Dhankar.
“Sandeep is inexperienced at world level and Narsingh needs more competition,” says former international Sujeet Mann, who represented India in 74kg at the 2004 Athens Olympics. “The problem is our wrestlers are still not world class in 74 kg. In trials, you can’t say who will beat whom, which means not one person is dominant,” he adds.
Sushil, whose last competition was at the 2019 world championships where he lost his opening bout has been watching from the sidelines. He has not participated in the selection trials after that, but has not closed the door on the Tokyo Olympics either.