Babita Kumari started her campaign in the women's 53 kg class wrestling at the Rio Olympics on a losing note on Thursday. The Indian grappler, who won two medals at past Commonwealth Games and also bagged a bronze in the World Championships four years ago, was beaten 1-5 by Maria Prevolaraki of Greece.
Kidambi Srikanth, the centre of attention in the Rio Olympics on Wednesday, can take heart from Hyderabad city mate P V Sindhu for his men's singles quarter-final clash against Chinese badminton icon Lin Dan.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
The World Anti Doping Agency has rejected the National Anti Doping Panel verdict on wrestler Narsingh Yadav after he was given a clean chit to compete in Rio Olympic Games, according to reports on Monday.
India's Sujit Mann lost his first elimination round pool A bout 0-8 to Kunihiko Obata of Japan in the 74 kg freestyle category of the men's wrestling competition.
The knee-injury which cut short her Rio Olympics campaign had left Vinesh Phogat writhing in pain, but the tears in her eyes on Monday after winning a historic gold medal at the Asian Games had a different meaning.
.jpg)
India's schedule on the ninth day of the competitions at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sunday.
Star India wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt will have to wait to know whether his bronze medal from the 2012 London Olympics is upgraded to silver till the time his sample is cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Reports emerged that the grappler's bronze would be upgraded to silver after second-place finisher of the London Games -- late Besik Kudukhov of Russia -- was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test.
'Team India's participation in the Olympics couldn't have ended on a sweeter note'
In a shocking turn of events, 25 out of the 45 women grapplers, who train at the SAI centre in Lucknow, reported absent from the national camp without taking permission from the National Federation.
The Wrestling Federation of India issued show cause notice to four wrestlers, including the Phogat sisters - Babita Kumari and Geeta - and handed them temporary suspension for indiscipline.
In an unprecedented move, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting award, will be conferred on four athletes this year. The Sports Ministry announced on Monday that Olympic medalists P V Sindhu and Sakshi Malik will be honoured alongside trail-blazing gymnast Dipa Karmakar and ace shooter Jitu Rai.
Haryana wrestler Sakshi Malik has come a long way in her fairy-tale journey to etch her name in the sporting history of the country.
It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours on Saturday. India clinched 14 gold and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19.Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to alesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals. The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions.
uspended wrestler Narsingh Yadav objected to Sushil Kumar's appointment as a national observer, raising conflict of interest allegations in a letter to the Sports Ministry.
The path to the Olympics is paved with potholes for many athletes but few can claim to have overcome hardship like wrestler Vinod Kumar, who was thrown from a speeding train by a rival's family in India before landing on his feet in Australia.
India have done reasonably well in the quadrennial continental event, only twice finishing outside the top eight since hosting the first Asiad in 1951.
The Games' Sport-Specific Regulations (SSR) has been developed jointly by IOC and the IFs to determine the impact of a confirmed positive COVID-19 case and its management in competition formats and structures.
The Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh blamed the organisers for the country's dismal show at the World Championships, saying the lack of facilities in Paris resulted in wrestlers losing out on 15 days of training ahead of the mega-event.
"Admirable preparation by wrestler Sakshi Malik for the Rio Olympics. My best wishes are with her," Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate her.
The Rio bronze-winner has tweaked her leg defence on the insistence of her coach Kuldeep Singh Malik, something that has already got her a gold in the Commonwealth Championships in December last year.
Fighting for an Olympic ticket on the unfamiliar legal turf, Sushil Kumar's glorious wrestling career may meet an unceremonious end when the Delhi High Court pronounces its verdict on Monday on who gets to board the flight to Rio between him and Narsingh Yadav. An unfavourable verdict for Sushil may not be the end on the legal front as he can still challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court. But it could well signal the end of the road for perhaps the greatest Indian Olympian, who won two back-to-back medals. With less than two months left for the Olympics, starting August 5, future look bleak for the unassuming grappler from Haryana whose injuries played a part in the entire sequence of events leading up to Monday. The Delhi High Court, in its last hearing on Thursday, gave clear indications that it was likely to give a judgement in favour of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in the tiff over selection trials in the men's 74kg freestyle category. The Delhi High court had observed that it did not find "any statutory mandate" to hold trials before the Olympics.
There was no disgruntled coach to lock him out as shown in the Bollywood blockbuster movie Dangal but Mahavir Phogat still missed watching daughter Babita Phogat's silver-winning campaign at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast on Thursday after he could not lay his hands on tickets to get inside the venue.
Australian wrestler Vinod Kumar failed a doping test during an Olympic qualification event in Algeria in April and is set to be dropped from the team for the Rio Games.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Director General Navin Agarwal confirmed that they found two samples taken fromNarsingh Yadav positive for dope.
The 32-year-old wrestler, who a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver at the London Games in 2012, was omitted from the Wrestling Federation of India's Rio preparatory camp, which will begin in Sonepat on Wednesday.
Commonwealth Games: The event Photographs
His Olympic dream in jeopardy after a failed dope test, wrestler Narsingh Yadav claimed innocence, saying that the scandal is a conspiracy against him.
'I am only saying that whoever between me and Narsingh is better, should represent the country at the Olympics' 'Trails took place in the past, before the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Last time, there was no competition, thus the trails 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 WFI has taken a decision in principle to let these wrestlers prepare on their own and not disturb them. On their requests, we have decided to let them skip the trials as they are best bets in their weight categories and hardly face any competition'
Wrestler Bajrang Kumar's scuttled trip to the USA for a crucial competition was brought back on track by Olympic bronze-medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, who convinced SAI officials in New Delhi to sanction his expenses for the Dave Schultz Memorial International Tournament in Colorado Springs.
Shuttler P V Sindhu scripted a new chapter in Indian Olympic history with unprecedented feat but the embattled Narsingh Yadav's dreams lay in tatters after being slapped with a four-year doping ban on a bitter-sweet day for the country at the Rio Games.
Sakshi thanked Olympic medalists Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt for showing wrestling the way.
Former coaches say that it will be a tough call. The WFI faces the tedious dilemma of youth versus experience, rising star up against the country's most celebrated athlete.
The wrestlers will be in action at the same venue, where the weightlifters signed off a phenomenal campaign
The suspense over wrestler Narsingh Yadav's Olympic participation was on Thursday prolonged further after the National Anti-Doping Agency deferred its final verdict on the doping scandal surrounding him to Saturday or Monday at the end of a two-day hearing in New Delhi. A day after Narsingh and his lawyers presented their case on the failed dope test, which according to them, was a conspiracy against the grappler, NADA's legal team gave its arguments against the sabotage theory before the disciplinary committee. "Hearing has been concluded today (Thursday). The judgement will come out either on Saturday or Monday," NADA's lawyer Gaurang Kanth told reporters at the end of the hearing.
A summary of Indian athletes' showing at the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Manavi Kapur goes behind the scenes to find out what it takes to be a successful woman wrestler.
World No 1 Bajrang has recently stamped his authority at the Asian Championship in Xi'an, China by clinching a gold medal in the men's 65kg freestyle event.
With Narsingh Yadav's roommate Sandeep Yadav at the Sports Authority of India Sonepat camp also testing positive for the same banned substance, Wrestling Federation of India said that it strengthens the conspiracy theory and indicates at a clear case of sabotage.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances