CHENNAI: Wrestlers are back in India after a brief training-cum-competition stint in Belarus. While national camp will be the focus, all eyes will be on multiple Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar. He will contest in the 74kg trials for a spot in the team for the Worlds, to be held in Kazakhstan next month.
The trials, postponed due to injuries to other wrestlers in that weight category, including Parveen Rana who hurt his shoulder during an exposure trip to Turkey, will be held along with the non-Olympic categories on a date before August 19. Interestingly, Sushil will not face Rana during trials as the latter has opted out.
“I consulted my doctor and he advised me to take rest for another two weeks,” Rana said. “So I will not compete but next year there is a qualifier in January and I would like to contest.”
However, the federation will go ahead with the trials.
“We will finalise the date tomorrow (Wednesday) since we have to send names before the deadline (August 19 set by United World Wrestling. We will conduct the trials by Saturday or Sunday,” Vinod Tomar, WFI assistant secretary, said. “We have given enough time to grapplers to recover.”
Jitender Kinha and Amit Dhankar are in contention apart from Sushil.