Tomar wins Asiad spot, Aware skips trials
Sonepat: Sandeep Tomar of the Services clinched the 57kg slot for the Asian Games after he beat Maharashtra's Utkarsh Kale in a nail-biting trial here today. There were only three wrestlers left in the 57kg fray after Rahul Aware pulled out with a knee injury. Through a draw of lots, Tomar got a bye while Maharashtra's Kale had to fight Delhi's Ravi Kumar. Kale beat the Delhi grappler on technical superiority. In the final bout against Tomar, Kale seemed to have done enough to win as he was leading 4-2 and then 6-2 in the second round. With only a minute left on the clock, it was looking dire for Tomar, the 2016 Olympian. But the 27-year-old then rolled Kale twice with a gut wrench to make it all square at 6-6 at the buzzer. Since he was the last one to register points in the bout, he was named the winner. In the trial for the World Championships to be held in Budapest from October 20 to 28, Pankaj Rana (70kg), Sachin Rathi (79kg) and Sombir (92kg) booked their spots. The trial for the 61kg, 65kg and 74kg categories for the Worlds will be held at a later date. In the Greco-Roman discipline, Gaurav (63kg), Vijay (55kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg) and Manjeet (82kg) qualified for the World Championships.
