CWG: Indian wrestlers grappling with expectations

NEW DELHI: Greco-roman grapplers seldom hog the limelight in India and keep away from mainstream wrestling action. In Glasgow, though, their absence from the programme will affect the nation's medal tally, since these wrestlers had fetched seven out of the 19 medals won by the Indian contingent in the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
The wrestling contingent this time will be spearheaded by the poster boys of the sport - two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt.
The duo have been on a sabbatical after their medal winning performance at the London Olympics and do not figure in the world rankings due to a prolonged absence from the international arena. Their experience, however, will pose a threat.
Recently, the duo proved their mettle in the senior international wrestling tournament in Sassari, Italy, winning in the new-weight categories for the first time. Yogeshwar won the gold medal in the 65kg category and Sushil settled for silver medal in the 74kg. Sushil and Yogeshwar had claimed the yellow metal four years ago in the 60kg and 66kg categories respectively.
"This is the best team," Wrestling Federation of India's secretary general Raj Singh, who is also the chef-de-mission for the CWG and Asian Games, said. The international wrestling federation (FILA) had late last year decided to introduce new rules and tweaked weight categories for the Rio Olympics in an effort to save the sport from an imp-ending Olympic axe and make it viewer friendly.
The young brigade - Amit Kumar (57kg), Bajrang Poonia (61kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg) and Satyavrat (97kg) - are, however, unaffected by the changes. The 19-year-old Amit, son of a milkman from Haryana, won a silver medal at the Budapest world championships last year.
In the same tournament, Bajrang announced his arrival on the big stage with a bronze.
He had also claimed bronze in the Asian championships in April last year. Bajrang is the best-ranked Indian grappler at No. 6 in the world and is second in Asia, while Amit is the World No. 9.
Freestyle grapplers had re turned home with a rich medal haul of seven gold, four silver and three bronze medals along with the team title in the 2013 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships held in Johannesburg last year.
Pawan Kumar and Satyavart Kadian had contributed a gold each in the tournament.
Asia No. 3 Satyavart's medal was the first in the heavyweight category for India. He is also the world No. 13 while Pawan, who will be participating in the 86kg, is ranked 17th in the 74kg category.
The women grapplers had clinched three gold, two silver and a bronze medal in the previous edition. Babita will look to retain the yellow metal in 55kg category in the absence of her sister Geeta Phogat, who is recovering from injury.
Geeta, who was the only Indian female grappler to qualify for the London Olympics, had won the gold in Delhi in 2010.
Geetika, Navjyot and Jyoti and young blood Vinesh are medal contenders in their own right and will be hoping to justify expectations.