Asian Olympic: Yogeshwar Dutt to spearhead Indian challenge

Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt will lead a 17-member wrestling team for the Asian Olympic qualification tournament, to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from March 18 to 20.

The team, consisting five in the men’s freestyle, six in the Greco-Roman and six women wrestlers, will reach Astana on March 15.

In the men’s freestyle, all eyes will be on Yogeshwar to book an Olympic berth in the 65kg category, while at least two out of the four others in the fray — Rahul Aware (57kg), Somveer (86kg), Satyawart Kadiayan (97kg) and Hitender (125kg) — are also expected to qualify for the Rio Games.

Narsingh Yadav has already booked an Olympic berth in the 74kg division. He was the lone Indian to qualify for the Rio Games at last year’s World Champio-nship in Las Vegas.

Yogeshwar could not fight during last year’s World Championship due to an injury.

In women’s wrestling, the Phogat sisters — Vinesh (48kg) and Babita (53kg) — and Sakshi Malik (58kg) stand a good chance of booking a quota place for the country in their respective weight categories.

After the tournament, the team will head to Mongolia for another qualifier — 1st World Qualification tournament from April 20 to 24.

Squad Freestyle: Rahul Aware (57kg), Yogeshwar Dutt (65kg), Somveer (86kg), Satyawart Kadiyan (97kg), Hitender (125kg) Greco-Roman: Ravinder Singh (59kg), Ravinder (66kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg), Hardeep Singh (98kg), Naveen (130kg) Women’s: Vinesh Phogat (48kg), Babita Kumari (53kg), Sakshi Malik (58kg), Anita (63kg), Navjot Kaur (67kg), Kiran (75kg)