Sushil struggled at the Jakarta Asian Games leading to questions on whether he was good enough to go any further at 36.
A turbulent run-up to the Rio Games behind him, Narsingh Yadav will be eyeing a fairytale climax while old warhorse Yogeshwar Dutt would look to bid adieu with a second straight medal when India begin their Olympic wrestling campaign on Monday.
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.
Sushil Kumar's fight for an Olympic berth suffered another blow with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) strongly hinting that they would prefer Narsingh Yadav for the Rio event by insisting on not having a trial given the quota winner's "consistent performances". Following the Delhi High Court directive, a special WFI committee, formed on the instruction of the court, held a meeting with the two-time Olympic medallist, to sort out as to who between Sushil and Narsingh would represent India in the men's 74kg freestyle category at the mega-event in August. "Sushil has put forward his views before the committee and has maintained what he has been saying since the very beginning that he should get a chance to undergo a trial," WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh told reporters in New Delhi. "We have told him that 'you have put Indian wrestling at a pedestal and we cannot ignore your contribution and we all respect you'. But on the other hand, there is another wrestler who has brought the Olympic quota and also has been giving consistent performances. So, can we be unfair to him also?" Brij Bhushan added.
India blanked Scotland 5-0 to enter the quarterfinals of the badminton mixed team event, displaying tremendous form en route to their third successive clean sweep at the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Friday.
Vinesh Phogat's gold medal was India's first since women's wrestling was introduced at the Asian Games in 2002.
All but written off after a string of injuries wrecked havoc on his career four years ago, enigmatic boxer Akhil Kumar staged a remarkable comeback to make the 10-member Indian men's team for the Asian Games, in Incheon, South Korea.
Five-time World champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) pipped arch-rival Pinki Jangra to the India's women's squad, while World Championships bronze medallist Shiva Thapa (56kg) made the cut in a star-studded men's boxing team for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in China from March 23.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
India's Vinesh defeated Mongolian wrestler in the women's freestyle 48kg category 10-0 to win bronze at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon on Saturday.
M C Mary Kom struck gold in the women's competition but India's men were denied a complete sweep by traditional powerhouses Cuba and Uzbekistan on an exciting final day of the India Open boxing tournament, in Delhi, on Thursday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Terming Yogeshwar Dutt's historic gold at the Asian Games as an "exceptional achievement", seasoned campaigner Sushil Kumar said the country's wrestlers have done justice to the sport by improving their medal count at the Asian Games. He was particularly impressed with Yogeshwar's semi-final performance against China's Katai Yerlanbieke at the Incheon Games. Yogeshwar Dutt's historic gold at the Asian Games as a "exceptional achievement", seasoned campaigner Sushil Kumar said that wrestlers have done justice to the sport by improving their medal count from the sport.
India's Manika Batra and Mouma Das lost 3-0 to Tianwei Feng and Mengyu Yu of Singapore in the women's sinlges final.
Rubbishing rumours that he had engineered the dope fiasco surrounding Olympic-bound Narsingh Yadav, a fuming Satpal Singh said it was wrong to point fingers at him and his protege without any proof. A fuming Satpal said the allegations against him were absolutely baseless and was ready to face any inquiry.
Hima Das's journey from the rice fields of Assam is to a world champion today is inspirational.
After becoming the first Indian to win a pro title, Vijender Singh said the real journey starts for him now in his quest to become the World champion in the professional circuit.
Vinesh Phogat was unable to hold back the tears in Istanbul last month when she emerged from a turbulent fortnight with a gold medal around her neck and a ticket to the Rio Olympics in her possession.
Celebrated boxer M C Mary Kom will aim for a historic sixth gold at the AIBA Women' World Championships, the build up of which has been marred by a row over lone Kosovan boxer's participation and poor quality air in the national capital.
Chandela shot an astonishing 252.9 in the eight-women final, finishing 1.1 points ahead of silver medallist China's Ruozhu Zhao (251.8) points.
Also seen in action for India will be the shuttlers, boxers, the women's hockey team and the table tennis players among others.
Sania Mirza's was officially named for the coveted Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Friday. The Hyderabadi lady is only the second tennis player to be nominated for the country's highest sport honour.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Director General Navin Agarwal confirmed that they found two samples taken fromNarsingh Yadav positive for dope.
Was it badminton sensation PV Sindhu, who became the first Indian to win the World Championships gold medal? Or is it the young shooting progidy Saurabh Chaudhary? Or his India colleague Elavenil Valarivan, who recently took over as World No 1? What about India's heroes on the cricketing field -- Virat Kohli? Rohit Sharma?
Some stellar performances by seasoned veterans and promising youngsters continued to raise the bar in Olympic sports but there was heartbreak in equal measure when corruption scandals blighted India's favourite obsession, cricket, in a see-saw year for the country's sportspersons.
Indian racer Arjun Maini made a strong start to his highly-anticipated debut in the European LeMans Series, recording the second fastest laptime in the qualifying session of the race.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Upset with the 'manipulative' singles draw, India's top squash player Dipika Pallikal is "seriously considering" pulling out of the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
>There's still hope and plenty to play for, says Rediff.com's Aruneel Sadadekar.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Top Indian shuttlers, PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap advanced to the women's singles quarter-finals and men's singles pre-quarterfinals, respectively, of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Kuching.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Iran ended seven-time champions India's unchallenged kabaddi domination in the Asian Games since the sport was first introduced in 1990.
In an encouraging development for the Indian women's hockey team, all the squad members are set to be included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) when the review committee will identify a core group for the government-funded programme, next month.
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.
In what could be one of the biggest doping scandals in recent years, as many as 21 weightlifters have been provisionally suspended by the Indian Weightlifting Federation after testing positive for banned substances.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Monday's ruling cleared the way for the 19-year-old to compete again in both domestic and international events after she was forced to sit out for about a year.
