Vinesh demands to compete in 50kg, 53kg; wins in lighter division

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be expected to continue their rich vein of form, while P.V. Sindhu will hope to ace a trial by fire to end India's 23year title drought at the All England Championships starting here on Tuesday.

Satwik and Chirag will remain India's biggest hopes of a title finish at the Utilita Arena Birmingham here. Standing in front of them in the opening round will be the veteran Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

Sindhu will also face an acid test this week with World No. 1 and top seed Korean An Se Young lined up in the second round, if the Indian tames Germany's Yvonne Li, against whom she has a 20 record.

Lakshya Sen will be up against Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong with a likely clash against fourth seeded Dane Anders Antonsen awaiting him in the second round.

H.S. Prannoy will open against Chinese Taipei’s Su Li Yang.

In an unusual development, Vinesh Phogat competed in two Olympic weights, 50kg and 53kg, on the same day and emerged as the winner in the lighter division in the selection trials for the Asian wrestling championships and Asian Olympic Games qualifier held at Patiala on Monday.

Vinesh demanded that the 53kg trials be held on Tuesday to let her compete in both weights. After it was decided that the selection could not be stretched to the next day, the adhoc committee conducting the trials along with the technical committee decided to allow her to fight in both weights since ‘there is no rule which stops a wrestler from competing in two weights in a trial’.

According to United World Wrestling’s Article7, “Each contestant deemed to be taking part of his/her own free will, and responsible for himself/herself, shall be allowed to compete in only one weight category: the one corresponding to his weight at the time of the official weighin.”

Vinesh beat Nirmala Devi 100 in the semifinal and Shivanee Pawar 116 in the 50kg final, giving herself a chance to win a quota place in the lower weight.

As per the adhoc panel, a challenger would be able to fight with Antim Panghal (who is supposed to participate in the Asian championships), the lone quota place winner in 53kg, in the Paris Olympic trials.

Vinesh lost 010 to Anju in the 53kg semis after ensuring that she remained in the top four and was eligible to be a challenger to Antim in her preferred weight. Vinesh said since there is no clarity (as guidelines may or may not change after the WFI takes full charge of wrestling affairs) whether a challenger would be able to fight with Antim in 53kg, she chose to compete in both weights.

The selected wrestlers: Women (Barring 53kg, No.2 in Olympic weights will compete in Asian championships): Olympic weights: 50kg: 1. Vinesh, 2. Shivanee Pawar; 53kg: 1. Anju; 57kg: 1. Anshu Malik, 2. Sarita Mor; 62kg: 1. Mansi Ahlawat, 2. Manisha; 68kg: 1. Nisha Dahiya, 2. Radhika; 76kg: 1. Reetika, 2. Priya Malik; Non-Olympic weight: 55kg: Tamanna; 59kg: Pushpa Yadav; 65kg: Antim Kundu; 72kg: Harshita.