NEW DELHI: WITH no Sushil Kumar, all eyes were on the 74kg category during Friday’s selection trials at Indira Gandhi Stadium. Eleven wrestlers fought it out amongst themselves, with Jitender Kumar finally emerging victorious. In the final, he beat Amit Dhankar 5-2.
This result comes five months after Jitender lost a controversial bout against the two-time Olympic medallist during the World Championship trials last year. Now, he stands in the way of Sushil and his dream of competing in a third Olympics. The winners in the five freestyle weight categories were supposed to take part in the Ranking Series (in Rome from January 15 to 18), Asian Championships (in New Delhi from February 18 to 23), and Olympic qualifiers (in Xian from March 27 to 29).
Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has not ruled Sushil out from making the cut for the qualifiers. “The selected wrestlers will take part in the first two competitions. If they perform well, they will not have to attend another trial. The weight category which sees weak display will have another trial prior to the Olympic qualifiers,” president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh confirmed.
The tweak in the rule is yet to reach the ears of grapplers, but Jitender said he will try to ensure that the federation does not hold another trial in his weight class.
“I’m yet to hear this but whatever the federation says, we will have to follow. My aim now is to try and win medals in both competitions so that the question of holding another trial does not arise.”
In the final clash, Jitender raced to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first period. The experienced Dhankar did try to stage a comeback, but his opponent controlled the bout and gave away only two points. Jitender began by avenging his nationals loss to Sandeep Mann before inching past Vinod Kumar.
It has been a tough last five months for Jitender. The bout against Sushil saw the JSW grappler suffer damage on both his hands and an eye. The eye injury took two weeks to heal, but the hand one was more serious.
“I had a ligament tear. I had to go to Russia for treatment. Bajrang (Punia) really helped me during those difficult times as he had suffered a similar injury.”
Jitender has also been training with Bajrang’s coach Shako Bentinidis for close to a year. He sometimes helps with sparring sessions, and Shako feels that Jitender has the talent to go far. “Physically, he is up there with what is expected of a champion. He has technical deficiencies and a work in progress. But he showed real improvement today. Given time, there is no reason as to why he cannot become a world-beater.”
According to personal coach Jaiveer, the main thing holding back Jitender is his mental block against opponents he has lost to. Sushil has already gotten the better of him twice, albeit in controversial circumstances.
“I have told him to be ready for anything during trials. You cannot control what others can do. You have to focus on giving it your all. He was quite aggressive today. If he keeps improving like this, sky is the limit.”
Berth right earned
List of wrestlers who qualified for Ranking Series & Asian C’ship
Freestyle
57 kg: Ravi Kumar
74 kg: Jitender Kumar
86 kg: Deepak Punia
97 kg: Satyawart Kadian
125 kg: Sumit Malik
Bajrang was already selected in 65 kg.
Greco-Roman
60 kg: Gyanender
67 kg: Aashu
77 kg: Gurpreet Singh
87 kg: Sunil Kumar
97 kg: Hardeep
130 kg: Naveen Kumar
Trials for non-Olympic weight categories will be held next week
