The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will go ahead with the trials in the men’s freestyle 74kg category despite a postponement request from injured Sushil Kumar.
However, the celebrated grappler may get a chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in March.
Sushil, who has been struggling to revive his career, pulled out of Friday’s trials citing a hand injury and had requested trials in his category to be postponed.
The winners in the trials will make the Indian team for 2020 season’s first Ranking Series tournament in Rome (January 15-18), Asian Championship in New Delhi (February 18-23) and Asian Olympic Qualifier in Xian, China from March 27 to 29.
READ| Injured Sushil Kumar pulls out of wrestling trials
WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said the trails will be held in all categories -- five Olympic classes in men’s freestyle and six in Greco-Roman style.
“Definitely the trials will not be postponed. We will have wrestlers competing in the 74kg. What can we do if Sushil is injured,” said Sharan.
“We will see the performance of the winner in the 74kg in ranking series event. Then we will decide on the next step,” Sharan said when asked if Sushil can be given a chance to compete at the Asian Qualifiers.
India had secured Olympic quotas in three men’s freestyle categories through Ravi Dahiya (57kg), Bajrang (65kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) while Vinesh Phogat (53kg) was the lone woman grappler to grab a Tokyo Games quota at the World Championships in Nur Sultan.
While Ravi, Deepak and Vinesh have been asked to compete in the trials, competition in their categories will be held only for the Rome and the New Delhi events.
“If the WFI feels that we do not have a strong candidate going for the Asian Qualifier (for Tokyo Games) in March, the federation may ask Sushil to appear in a trial,” said WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar.
The women’s trials will be held in Lucknow on Saturday.
Comments
SHARE