Sushil ignored, Amit picked ahead of Mann for wrestling's final Olympic qualifier

The World Olympic Qualifying Tournamen, to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from May 6-9, will be the last qualifying event before the Tokyo Games.

Sushil Kumar's exclusion could signal the end of the road for veteran.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) selection committee has chosen seasoned wrestler Amit Dhankar in the place of youngster Sandeep Singh Mann in men’s 74kg freestyle category for the World Olympic Games qualifying tournament to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from May 6 to 9.

Mann had won the National championships and the selection trials for the Asian Olympic qualifying and Asian championships events. He lost in a bronze medal match of the qualifying event and faced defeat in the Asian championships quarterfinals.

Mann “didn't give satisfactory performance” in these events, said a WFI release on Thursday. “Hence, the committee decided to give a chance to Amit Dhankar who secured second position in the selection trials held on March 16.”

In Greco Roman, the panel made replacements in 60kg and 97kg categories. “The wrestlers selected in these weight categories, Gyanendra and Ravi respectively, gave poor performances in both competitions. Hence, the committee gave a chance to Sachin Rana and Deepanshu who secured second positions in the trials.”

The selected wrestlers:

Freestyle: Amit Dhankar (74kg), Satyawart Kadian (97kg) and Sumit (125kg); Greco Roman: Sachin Rana (60kg), Aashu (67kg), Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Sunil (87kg), Deepanshu (97kg) and Naveen Kumar (130kg); Women: Seema (50kg), Nisha (68kg), Pooja (76kg).