Amidst the raging debate of who will be representing India in the Rio Olympics 2016, Sushil Kumar has come out with a statement asking the support of fans in his bid for a spot in the Olympic squad and for his demand for a trial with Narsingh Yadav.
Yadav had won an Olympic quota place for India in Men’s 74kg weight category after winning a bronze medal last year at the World Championships held in Vegas. However, according to the rules, it is the country and not the player that gets the berth. Nonetheless, he became the first Indian wrestler to earn an Olympic berth with a medal won at the prestigious tournament.
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In a video released on his Twitter account, Sushil Kumar has asked for support from all his fans in realising his dream to win a third medal for India at the Olympics and has wished for help with his demands for a fair trial to decide who gets to represent the nation in Rio this Summer.
Kumar has won two Olympic medals, a silver medal in 2012 London Olympics and a bronze medal in 2008 Beijing Olympics, becoming the first Indian to win back to back Olympic medals. Wanting to add a third to his tally and following his demand for a trial, Sushil tweeted, “I want the best player to go and play for India.”
Despite being the more experienced of the two, the fact that Sushil was forcefully made to switch to the 74kg category after having his pet division of 66kg scrapped by the International Wrestling Federation may weigh against him as the 32-year old’s counterpart Yadav is the more accustomed one to this category, having consistently performed well since 2014 Asian Games.
But Sushil has gone a long way in proving his mantle through his gold-winning performance at the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow.
In an earlier statement, Sushil had said “ Trials took place in the past. Before the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Last time, there was no competition, thus the trials did not take place. There was no one to challenge me in my weight category last time. But this time, the situation is different.”
The veteran Wrestler was not included by the wrestling federation in the provisional list sent to the Indian Olympics Association. However, they are yet to take a stance as to hold the trial or not and have time until July 18 to take a call.
