Sushil to give Asian meet a miss, Rana in

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23

Something that was being talked about in hushed voices in the wrestling fraternity has turned out to be true. Sushil Kumar has withdrawn from the Indian team for the Asian Championships to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

The two-time Olympics medallist wrote to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on February 21 to inform it of his decision to sit out of the February 27-March 4 event.Confirming this, WFI sources said that Sushil was worried that he might aggravate his knee injury if he participated.

Sushil sustained this injury during the trials to select India’s nominee in the 74kg category at the Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games. “He doesn’t want to risk it. Now he has prioritised the Commonwealth Games,” another source added. The same injury had forced Sushil to sit out of Season 3 of the Pro-Wrestling League last month. 

Parveen in

WFI has nominated Parveen Rana’s name in the 74kg weight division for the Bishkek event. This withdrawal is the latest talking point in the career of India’s most celebrated wrestler since he decided to come back to active wrestling, after having retired in 2016 when he could not participate in the Rio Olympics.

The 34-year-old started his comeback at the 2017 National Championships held in Indore. He won the gold, but his win was marred by a series of walkovers by several of his opponents. Sushil, thus, easily won his first national title in over nine years.

Sushil then narrowly beat Parveen Rana to win the gold at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Durban, South Africa, in December. But the worst was yet to come. Sushil’s supporters allegedly beat up Rana and his elder brother Naveen for daring to stand up to his former mentor from Chhatrasal Stadium during the trials for the Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games in late December.

Sushil alleged that both Rana and his younger Railway colleague Jitender bit him during the bouts. Sushil’s supporters were angry after Rana allegedly bit Sushil twice and tried to injure his knee and break his fingers in a controversial bout at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here.

Rana subsequently lodged an FIR against Sushil and his supporters, alleging that they had threatened to kill him and his brother. He also made a formal complaint to WFI, also questioning a few refereeing decisions that went against him.