Star wrestler Sushil Kumar has opted to skip the Incheon Asian Games after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) conducted the selection trials for the continental event and the World championship.
The WFI had made some exceptions for the Commonwealth Games gold medallists — Sushil (70kg), Yogeshwar Dutt (65kg) and Amit Kumar (57kg) — by allowing them to skip the trials and picking them for the Asian Games.
However, Sushil expressed his desire to skip the continental event late in the evening. “Sushil said he wanted to focus on the 2016 Rio Olympics and wanted to conserve his energy,” said WFI Secretary General Raj Singh. At the selection trials held at the Ludlow Castle hall here instead of the usual venue (the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre, Sonepat), the freestyle wrestlers who emerged as winners in 65kg and 57kg were selected for the World championship to be held at Tashkent from Sept. 8 to 14.
The teams: Freestyle: For Asian Games: Amit Kumar (57kg), Bajrang (61kg), Yogeshwar Dutt (65kg), Parveen Rana (70kg), Narsingh Yadav (74kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg), Satyawart Kadian (97kg). For World championship: Rahul Aware (57kg), Rahul Mann (61kg), Amit Dhankar (65kg), Arun (70kg), Balraj (74kg), Naresh Kumar (86kg), Sumit (97kg). Greco Roman (For Asian Games and World championship): Ravinder Singh (59kg), Sandeep Yadav (66kg), Krishna Kant Yadav (71kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Harpreet Singh (80kg), Manoj (85kg), Hardeep (98kg), Dharmender Dalal (130kg). — Special Correspondent
