CHENNAI: The face-off between Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav gave sleepless nights to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) ahead of the 2016 Olympics. The battle reached the court with Sushil demanding selection trial in 74kg despite Narsingh securing a berth after winning a bronze in the 2015 World Championships.
The Delhi High Court dismissed the two-time Olympic medallist’s appeal, clearing the road for Narsingh’s participation. Although Narsingh failed a dope test, the controversy taught the WFI a lesson.
In its bid to avoid recurrence of another ugly before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualification starting with the World Championships in Kazakhstan on Saturday, the WFI on Friday made it clear that only those who earn quota places through scheduled qualifiers will be allowed to represent the country in Tokyo.
“The WFI policy is very clear as far as Olympic qualification is concerned. Only those wrestlers who earn quota places will be eligible to represent the country,” Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, the WFI president, told this newspaper.
Indian wrestlers can qualify in 18 events (six each in three categories — men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman) for the 2020 Games. If they finish in top six in their respective events at the Worlds, they will qualify. The grapplers will get another chance to stake their claims if they finish first or second in the continental qualification tournament in March. There is a third chance in the form of the World Qualification in April, where again the aspirants have to finish first or second.
The United World Wrestling (UWW) has already announced dates for the last two qualifiers with the Asian Continental Qualification Tournament scheduled in China from March 27 to 29. The World Qualification tournament will be held in Bulgaria from April 30 to May 3.