Last chance for wrestlers to book Olympic quotas

Amid recent controversies including a ban on some big names, Indian wrestlers will seek a fresh start when they take to the mat at the 2nd world qualifying tournament in Istanbul from Friday, aiming to secure as many Olympic quotas in their last attempt.

The 14-member India team, sans the likes of the Phogat sisters — Geeta and Babita Kumari — are expected to face tough competition, considering that only the top two finishers in each weight category get a quota place at the Games, during the three-day competition.

Last week, the Wrestling Federation of India issued show cause notices to four wrestlers — Geeta (women’s 58kg), Babita (women’s 53kg), Sumit (men’s 125kg freestyle) and Rahul Aware (men’s 57kg freestyle) — before handing them a temporary suspension for showing indiscipline during the 1st world qualification tournament in Mongolia last month, bringing their dream of qualifying for Rio Olympics to an abrupt end.

To add to all this, Vinesh Phogat (women’s 48kg) was disqualified from the event for being 400gms overweight. However, Vinesh was let off with a warning.

No Indian woman wrestler has so far won a quota place and with Geeta and Babita out now, the onus will be on Vinesh.

Lalita has replaced Babita and Sakshi Malik comes in place of Geeta.

The Squad: Men’s freestyle: Gopal Yadav (86kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg), Hitender (125kg). Women’s wrestling: Vinesh (48kg), Lalita (53kg), Sakshi Malik (58kg), Shilpi Sheron (63kg), Geetika Jhakar (69kg), Kiran (75kg). Greco-Roman: Ravinder Singh (59kg), Suresh Yadav (66kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg), Naveen (130kg).