Silver lining for Jitender at last
NEW DELHI: August 20. Jitender Kumar suffered a heartbreaking 4-2 loss to two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar in a bitterly fought selection trial bout to miss out on the chance to participate in the World Championships. With an elbow and eye injury, it seemed destiny was slipping away from him. Fast forward to Sunday, the Wrestling Federation of India confirmed that the grappler would indeed be travelling to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for the Olympic Qualifiers. To top it off, he also won a silver on the last day of the Asian Wrestling Championships.
This means that the door is slowly closing on Sushil’s dream of competing in his very last Olympics. He will have to wait for the outcome in Bishkek, where Jitender can confirm his Tokyo berth with a top two finish. “We will have no trials in freestyle. Post the qualifiers, we will take a call on whether to have further trials,” WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said.
Jitender started off in commanding fashion, decimating Thai opponent Chamnanjan Parinya 14-5 before overcoming Iran’s Hosseinkhani Mostafa Mohabbali 2-2 in the quarterfinals. He prevailed over Zandanbud Sumiyabazar of Mongolia in the semifinal 2-1 to set up his gold medal face-off against defending champion Kaisanov Daniyar of Kazakhstan. The final was a cagey affair with both wrestlers looking to avoid conceding easy points. With Daniyar getting a two-point lead, the Indian tried his best to reduce the arrears but the buzzer rang and he had to be content with a silver. “I have improved my all-round game. I would not say I was too defensive. I tried to go for a final attack but it just did not work out. I will train harder to ensure the same mistakes are not committed,” Jitender said.
On asked where he ranks this performance, the 74kg grappler added, “Every medal is special but playing and winning a silver in front of your fans and with the event being beamed across the country. I just wanted to show the hard work I was putting in and I’m glad it paid off.” Jitender also admitted that thoughts of going through another trial was not in his mind. “I was representing my country and those thoughts did not enter my head. I will follow whatever the federation decides.”
In the morning session, World Championship medallists Deepak Punia and Rahul Aware missed out on the chance to vie for gold. Deepak lost his 86kg semifinal to Japan’s Shutaro Yamada as he hardly attacked. He did not look like his usal self. However, in the bronze medal match, Deepak got the better of Iraqi Issa Abdulsalam Abdulwahhab Al Obaidi via technical superiority. “I was carrying an injury when I returned from training in Russia. I had got six stitches above my right eye and had not trained for the last 10-12 days. Today was the first time on the mat in that time and hence I looked a bit rusty.” In the non-Olympic 61kg category, Aware settled for bronze.
Best-ever haul
This is India’s best performance in the Asian Championships where they clinched 20 medals including five gold, six silver and nine bronze.