Ending weeks of speculation, double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar on Tuesday confirmed his participation in the selection trials for the World Championships starting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan from September 14. The World Championships is the first qualification event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
But, since some leading wrestlers in Sushil’s weight class (74kg) are injured, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has postponed the trials in this particular category to August. The trials in the other five weight categories — 57kg, 65kg, 86kg, 97kg and 125kg — will take place as scheduled on Friday.
The WFI has also shifted the venue for the trials from Sonepat to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
WFI president, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, said, “Sushil is eligible to compete in the trials and we have given our approval. However, the trials in the 74kg category have been postponed as some wrestlers in the camp are injured. We will conduct the trials in the second week of August as the injured wrestlers want time to recover.”
Sushil’s archrival Praveen Rana is also injured. “He is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during an exposure trip to Turkey in June,” said a WFI official. Asian Championships medallist Amit Dhankar, Jitendra Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Pradeep Kumar are the other wrestlers who are contenders in the 74kg category.
{{/usCountry}}Sushil’s archrival Praveen Rana is also injured. “He is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during an exposure trip to Turkey in June,” said a WFI official. Asian Championships medallist Amit Dhankar, Jitendra Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Pradeep Kumar are the other wrestlers who are contenders in the 74kg category.
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