CHENNAI: The 64th men’s and 22nd women’s senior national wrestling championship will begin in Jalandhar on Friday. Gold medallists in each freestyle and women’s category will represent the country in the South Asian Games in Nepal from December 1 to 10. Top male wrestlers including Bajrang Punia (65kg), Sushil Kumar (74kg), Ravi Dahiya (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) will skip the three-day event. In their absence, the grapplers to watch out for are Amit Kumar Dahiya (65kg), Gaurav Baliyan (74kg), Satyawart Kadian (97kg) and Sumit Malik (125kg).
Star women wrestlers Vinesh Phogat (53kg) and Sakshi Malik (62kg) will be in action. There is no confirmation, but Seema Bisla (50kg), Sarita Mor (57kg), Navjot Kaur (65kg) and Divya Kakran (68kg) are expected to take part.“We’ve sent a tentative list to the SAG organising committee. The final list will be out on Saturday after the women’s competitions. Gold medal winners in men’s freestyle and women’s wrestling will represent the country at the Games.
If a gold medallist skips the event due to some reason, the silver medal winner will replace him or her in the national squad,” Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), told this daily. Wrestling events at the Games are from from December 6 to 9.Men’s freestyle competitions will be held on Friday followed by women’s the next day. Greco-Roman bouts will take place on the last day on December 1.
More than 500 wrestlers from various state units along with Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) and Services Sports Promotion Board (SSPB) will compete in the event. RSPB are defendin champions in all three styles and have the luxury of fielding two contestants in each weight category.
volleyball teams register wins
KATHMANDU: India volleyball teams got off to a happy start in the South Asian Games. The men’s team outplayed Bangladesh 25-18, 25-14, 25-1 in a Group A contest. The women, on the other hand, got the better of hosts Nepal 26-24, 25-12, 25-16 in a Group A encounter.