The Wrestling Federation of India is likely to pardon temporarily suspended Babita Kumari for forfeiting her bout in a recent qualifying event and allow her to compete at the Rio Games, as she secured an Olympic berth after her rival failed a dope test.
P Anitha, Madhavan Nambiar, Sudha Hari Narayan Singh, Virender Singh, and KY Venkatesh have also been awarded the prestigious award.
Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik crashed out in the first round while compatriot Vinesh Phogat's campaign also ended in a whimper as Indian grapplers continued with dismal show at World Wrestling Championship.
Yogeshwar Dutt's London Olympics bronze medal will not be upgraded to gold after the United World Wrestling (UWW) on Tuesday made it clear that the top-place finisher in men's 60kg freestyle -- Togrul Asgarov - never tested positive for a banned substance. "Contrary to news reports, 2012 Olympic gold medalist Togrul ASGAROV (AZE) has never been in violation of UWW's anti-doping policy," the world body tweeted from its official Twitter handle.
The Indian Olympics Association (IOA), on Thursday, said that it will not object to wrestler Narsingh Yadav replacing Praveen Rana in the Rio Olympics if he is cleared by NADA in an ongoing dope scandal.
India's hope of a medal from the Olympics wrestling competition suffered a rude jolt when their main star Yogeshwar Dutt crashed out after losing to Japan's Kenichi Yumoto 3-6 in the quarter-finals of the 60 kg freestyle in Beijing on Tuesday.
Sushil Kumar, a bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics last year, missed out on another medal when he lost in the semi-finals of the Wrestling World Championships in Denmark.
Haryana on Wednesday honoured its 'daughter' Sakshi Malik by appointing her as brand ambassador of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign and presenting the Olympic bronze medallist a cheque of Rs 2.5 crore.
Star Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Friday said she does not have much time to grieve over her Tokyo Games debacle and is gearing up for future challenges while young Anshu Malik suggested that a sports psychologist should be attached with the team to help them overcome nerves at big stage like the Olympics.
Bajrang Punia stopped using his social media handles and asked fans to keep showing him support as he gets battled ready for the Games
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.
Check out India's schedule on Day 9 of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast on Friday.
India's wrestler Simran settled for a silver in women's freestyle 43 kg category competition after she lost to Emily Shilson of United States in the final bout at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver at the following Games in London, has signed up with Olympic Gold Quest, which will provide him training and financial assistance in his preparation for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Vinesh Phogat, the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for Tokyo Olympics, has pulled out of the national camp citing health safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision which has irked the national federation.
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.
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.
The Rio Olympics bronze medalist shared the stage with Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha during the Whisper 'Like a Girl' campaign. When asked about the recent trend of making biopics on sportsmen, Sonakshi said that she will be thrilled to star as Sakshi if at all a movie was made based on the wrestler's life.
While skill is not an issue with Vinesh, holding off strong candidates for six minutes is a big challenge, she herself had admitted recently.
The Delhi High Court on Monday, dismissed wrestler Sushil Kumar's plea seeking selection trial with Narsingh Yadav for 74 kg freestyle category for a berth at the Rio Olympics.
'WADA had never intervened in Narsingh's matter and no clearance is required.'
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
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.
Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt is not keen to collect the upgraded silver medal from 2012 London Olympics on humanitarian grounds given that the original second place finisher's positive dope test came after his death.
Widely expected to clinch one last medal for India at the Rio Games, London Olympics bronze-medallist Yogeshwar Dutt is trying hard not to let the Narsingh Yadav episode affect him ahead of the men's 65kg freestyle event on Sunday. A day after an unassuming Sakshi Malik became the heartthrob of the nation by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal when she opened India's tally with a bronze, doping cloud began to haunt the grapplers again as Narsingh was slapped with a four-year ban for testing positive for banned substance.
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.
'Team India's participation in the Olympics couldn't have ended on a sweeter note'
"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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
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.
India have done reasonably well in the quadrennial continental event, only twice finishing outside the top eight since hosting the first Asiad in 1951.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Director General Navin Agarwal confirmed that they found two samples taken fromNarsingh Yadav positive for dope.
A summary of Indian athletes' showing at the Asian Games on Tuesday.
His Olympic dream in jeopardy after a failed dope test, wrestler Narsingh Yadav claimed innocence, saying that the scandal is a conspiracy against him.
