Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia gear up for Asian C’ship

Divya Kakran, Pooja Dhankar return to the Indian team for the tourney in China.

File Photo: Vinesh Phogat will participate in the 53kg category.

All eyes will be on Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik as they participate — alongside others — in the Asian Wrestling Championship to be held in China in April, 2019. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) conducted trials for women in Lucknow on Saturday, and for men in Sonepat on Sunday, for the same.

Vinesh will get to test herself in the 53kg — a new weight category for her. She had competed for the first time in the category at the UWW Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tourney in Bulgaria, and had to settle for a silver. In the same competition, Bajrang, competing in the 65kg, won gold.

Sakshi, the bronze medallist at Rio Olympics, also won a silver, in the 65 kg, and in the 59kg category, Pooja Dhanda won gold.

Back to 62kg for Sakshi

At the upcoming Asian Championship, Sakshi will go back to her 62kg category, while Navjot Kaur will represent India in 65kg.

Read | World wrestling body's diktat on WFI is not exceptional, says Lalovic

Divya Kakran, the Asian Games bronze medallist, will return to competitive wrestling after recovering from an ankle injury. She will compete in the 68kg category.

Amit Dhankar, the national champion, will participate in 74kg, while Rahul Aware, the wrestler from Maharashtra, made a comeback to the Indian team by winning the trials in 61kg.

The championship will be held from April 23 to April 28, 2019.

• Free Style: Ravi Kumar (57kg), Rahul Aware (61kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg), Rajneesh (70kg), Amit Dhankar (74kg), Praveen Rana (79kg), Deepak Punia (86kg), Viky (92kg), Satyavrat Kadian (97kg) and Sumit (125kg).
• Greco Roman Style: Manjeet (55kg), Gyanender (60kg), Vikram Kumar (63kg), Ravinder (67kg), Yogesh (72kg), Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Harpreet Singh (82kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg), Hardeep Singh (97kg) and Prem Kumar (130kg).
• Women’s Wrestling: Seema (50kg), Vinesh (53kg), Lalita Sehrawat (55kg), Pooja Dhanda (57kg), Manju (59kg), Sakshi Malik (62kg), Navjot Kaur (65kg), Divya Kakran (68kg), Kiran (72kg) and Pooja (76kg).