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I am ready for trials for world championship, says Sushil Kumar in Bhopal
Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar says he is ready for any selection trial for the upcoming wrestling world championships scheduled in Las Vegas from September 7-12.
Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar says he is ready for any selection trial for the upcoming wrestling world championships scheduled in Las Vegas from September 7-12.
“If Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) asks me to participate in the selection trials, I am ready for that,” Sushil told HT. “I always follow instructions of the WFI. I was even ready for selection trials before the Common Wealth Games-2014 held in Glasgow.”
The national wrestling federation may be holding selection trials which will see Sushil fight it out with Narsingh Yadav for the 74 kg weight category. Incidentally, the wrestling world championship will double up as a qualification tournament for the next year’s Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
“In countries like Russia, medalists and senior sportspersons are kept away from domestic tournaments to avoid unnecessary injuries. This is the reason behind the good performances of these players at Olympics. Similarly, medalist wrestlers from India, including me and Yogeshwar Dutt, were kept away from national tournaments so that we could give our best in mega sports events like Olympics. But we don’t have problem in appearing for any test,” he said.
Sushil, who is a technical advisor of the MP State Wrestling Academy, Bhopal, had come to the state capital to select players for the academy.
To a question on discipline troubles at the national camps, Sushil said, “I have taken off for few days but I always attend camp and follows discipline in the camp."
Meanwhile, the grappler felt the lack of exposure was affecting the progress of the trainees at the wrestling academy. “Except two girls, who are really doing well, trainees are not performing well as they lack in exposure,” he said.
