Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya eliminated from Paris 2024 Olympics qualification race

Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya -- both Tokyo Games medallists -- were on Sunday eliminated from the Paris Olympics qualification race after losing their respective bouts in the selection trials.

FILE PHOTO: India’s Bajrang Punia eliminated from Paris 2024 Olympics qualification race. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Promising wrestlers Asian champion Aman Sehrawat (57kg) and National champion Sujeet Kalkal (65kg) emerged as the winners in their respective freestyle weight classes as Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya and bronze medallist Bajrang Punia could not make it into the Indian team in the selection trials held for the upcoming Asian championships and Asian Olympic Games qualifiers at Sonipat on Sunday.

Sehrawat, who earlier defeated fellow akhara mate Dahiya 14-13 in a thrilling round robin contest, recorded a convincing 10-0 win over Udit for the top spot. Dahiya was also beaten 10-8 by Udit.

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) officials tried to collect a sample for a dope test from Punia but he did not stay back even for the third-fourth place bout.

Kalkal got past Rohit Kumar 10-0. Earlier, Rohit posted a convincing 9-1 victory over Bajrang, who managed to overcome Ravinder 3-3 via criteria.

Former Worlds silver medallist Deepak Punia (86kg) booked his place in the Olympic qualifiers.

As per the ad-hoc committee’s guidelines, the winner of the trials in the Olympic weight categories will represent India in upcoming Olympic qualifiers including the Asian Olympic qualifier (April 19-21) and World Olympic qualifier (May 9-12).

The winners in non-Olympic weight categories and the second-placed wrestlers in Olympic weight categories at the trials will represent the country in the Asian championships (April 11-16) in Bishkek.

READ | IOA ad-hoc committee and WFI to conduct selection trials for Asian Wrestling championships and Olympic qualifiers

The men’s 57kg, being organised in Nordic format, was always a tough category since both Tokyo Games silver medallist Ravi Dahiya and star-in-making Aman Sehrawat were in contention.

Aman has made a name for himself after winning medals at almost all tournaments in 2023 when Dahiya did not compete. Aman, the Asian Games bronze medallist, staved off a last-minute push from Dahiya to win the close bout.

Dahiya lost the next bout to U20 Asian champion Udit to be eliminated.

India has so far earned only one quota for the Paris Games through Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg).

The squad:

Men: Freestyle: Olympic weights: 57kg: 1. Aman Sehrawat, 2. Udit; 65kg: 1. Sujeet Kalkal, 2. Rohit Kumar; 74kg: 1. Jaideep, 2. Yash Tushir; 86kg: 1. Deepak Punia, 2. Sandeep Singh; 97kg: 1. Deepak Nehra, 2. Vicky; 125kg: 1. Sumit Malik, 2. Anirudh; Non-Olympic weights: 61kg: Aakash Dahiya; 70kg: Abhimanyou; 79kg: Parvinder; 92kg: Vinay.

Greco Roman: Olympic weights: 60kg: 1. Sumeet, 2. Pravesh Kumar; 67kg: 1. Ashu, 2. Vinayak Patil; 77kg: 1. Vikash, 2. Sajjan; 87kg: 1. Sunil Kumar, 2. Ajay; 97kg: 1. Nitesh, 2. Narinder Cheema; 130kg: 1. Naveen, 2. Mehar Singh; Non-Olympic weights: 55kg: Arjun Halakurki; 63kg: Umesh; 72kg: Ankit Gulia; 82kg: Rohit Dahiya.

- With inputs from PTI