In an unforeseen turn of events, Indian wrestling has just earned two more quotas for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.
This development has been brought upon by the United World Wrestling body after several instances of doping violations by the wrestlers participating in the recent European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Serbia and the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Kazakhstan were recorded. Samples had revealed concentrations of the prohibited meldonium which led to the enforcement of UWW’s latest proceedings.
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Howsoever upsetting the offences might be for the sport at large, they carry much delight for the Indian contingent who will now be seeing two more of their wrestlers board onto the Rio bandwagon.
In the 85 kg category of Greco-Roman wrestling, Zhanarbek Kenzheev of Kyrgyzstan testing positive implies his debarment from the competition, which in turn transfers the ticket to Ravinder Khatri of India.
In women’s wrestling, Sumiya Erdenechimeg of Mongolia has been found guilty of the same offence at the Asian Qualifiers and thus Commonwealth silver medallist Babita Kumari clinches her quota in the 53 kg freestyle wrestling for India.