NEW DELHI: The highly-anticipated trials in the 74kg weight category for the World Wrestling Championships will finally take place on August 20 with Sushil Kumar set to be the star attraction.
The 36-year-old, coming off a fifth-place finish at the Medved International, will be the cynosure of all eyes inside the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall located within the IGI stadium. Trials in the non-Olympic categories — 61kg, 70kg, 79kg and 92kg will also take place on the same date. “We are anticipating quite a large gathering since Sushil will be competing after a long break in India. The IGI Stadium gives us space to accommodate them,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar told this newspaper.
The cut-off date for sending entries for the marquee event that will be held at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, from September 14-22 was August 19. However, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) have spoken to United World Wrestling (UWW) and taken permission for late entry.
“Entries in the remaining Olympic weight categories have already been sent. We have taken permission from the world body and we will be sending the remaining ones as soon as the trials are completed,” Tomar said.
While Parveen Rana, Sushil’s rival, has reportedly pulled out, the multiple Olympic medallist will still have to contend with Jitender Kinha and Amit Dhankar. Despite Rana’s decision, the federation is not taking any chances and will keep the security tight to avoid any unforeseen incident.
Weigh-in will take place on the day of the trials and a tolerance of 1kg will be allowed. “There might be quite a few entries in 74kg, you never know. It will be keenly-contested,” senior coach Jagminder added.
Women’s team selection trials are scheduled for August 19 at the Sai Training Centre, Lucknow in 55kg, 59 kg, 65 kg, and 72 kg weight categories.