The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will go ahead with the trials in the men's freestyle 74kg category despite a postponement request from the injured Sushil Kumar. Sushil, who has been struggling to revive his career, has pulled out of Friday's trials citing a hand injury and had requested trials in his category to be postponed.
Vinesh wins bronze, Pooja in line for second medal
Virat Kohli? M C Mary Kom? Neeraj Chopra?
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?
"The unfair and discriminatory" rules have drawn sharp criticism from the Indian Olympic Association, which has written to the Games' organising committee requesting it to ensure that mechanisms to prevent COVID-19 do not have any "adverse and detrimental impact" on performance of athletes.
Wrestlers Ravinder Khatri and Babita Kumari have secured spots at the upcoming Rio Olympics after their rivals failed a dope test, taking the total number of quota places from India to eight. Khatri was awarded the berth in the Greco-Roman 85 kg after Kenzheev Zhanarbek of Kyrgystan tested positive at the Asian Olympic qualifier. Babita gets a shot at competing in Rio with Mongolian wrestler Sumiya Erdenechimeg failing the dope test in 53 kg freestyle, also at the Asian qualifier. Last week, Vinesh Phogat clinched a gold as she and Sakshi Malik secured Rio berths in 48 and 58kg respectively at the second World Olympic Qualifying tournament in a historic feat of two Indian women wrestlers qualifying for Olympics for the first time.
Competing for the first time in women's 60kg category after jumping up the weight division from 58kg, Sakshi hardly broke a sweat en route to the final.
Vinesh Phogat doesn't mind being called arrogant for it since the attitude comes in handy to intimidate rivals on the mat.
The women's national wrestling camp will finally begin at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Lucknow from October 10, the Wrestling Federation of India said on Tuesday, with a warning that the grapplers who miss it will not be considered for selection to the Indian team.
There was no stopping the gold rush in wrestling as two more were added to the tally by Vinesh Phogat (50kg) and Sumit (125kg) but Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) had to be content with a third-place finish in the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Saturday.
Indian contingent would be aiming to make it all good with strong medal-winning performances when the acutely-low-on-buzz Commonwealth Games start
"I want to dedicate my gold to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. He has inspired me," Punia tweeted after his victory.
Pooja Dhanda, a world championship medallist, said that lack of competition has crippled wrestlers.
Bajrang Punia stopped using his social media handles and asked fans to keep showing him support as he gets battled ready for the Games
Rediff.com introduces you to the athletes who have brought India glory in Birmingham.
A record contingent of 121 athletes, including 54 women, will represent India at the Rio Olympics.
Shrugging off his controversial semi-final defeat, Bajrang Punia bagged his third World Wrestling Championships medal while Ravi Dahiya made his debut memorable by grabbing a bronze.
He will now clash with Switzerland's Stefan Reichmuth for a place in the gold medal match.
Young Ritu Malik kept India in medal contention by reaching the bronze play-off ,but there was no end to the woes of Sakshi Malik, who suffered a humiliating quarter-final defeat, and Ritu Phogat at the World Championship , in Budapest, on Wednesday.
Hardeep sprung a surprise by booking an Olympic quota place for India in Greco-Roman wrestling, which is not the country's forte, after making the 98kg category final on the last day of the Asian Olympic Qualification championship, in Astana, on Sunday.
The World Championships will be held in Budapest from October 20-28.
Following is India's schedule on Day 2 of competitions at the 18th Asian Games on Monday.
In an embarrassment for India, ace female wrestler Vinesh Phogat was, on Saturday, disqualified from the 1st World Olympic Qualifying event for being overweight on a day when other women grapplers also failed to book Rio Games berth.
Vogue Woman Of The Year Awards 2018 was a star-studded affair.
Bajrang staged a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA's Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category.
From the boxing ring to the shooting range to the athletics arena, it was India shining on the penultimate day of the 21st Commonwealth Games where the country claimed its biggest single-day haul of the ongoing edition, ensnaring eight gold medals across five disciplines.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was left red-faced during Sunday's felicitation ceremony to award cash prize to Asian Games medallists as the parent body got multiple names wrong on the cheques and even missed out on one.
2018 was largely forgettable for Sushil Kumar -- India's only double Olympic-medallist -- and Sakshi Malik -- the country's first and only woman wrestler to win a medal at the biggest stage.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
Path-breaking tennis ace Sania Mirza takes pride in the fact that many of India's sporting stars, outside cricket, are women even though she believes that it will take a few more generations before being a sportswoman is seen as a natural career choice in the country. The winner of six Grand Slam titles, spoke on a range of issues including the role of parents and attitude of coaches towards women players during a webinar organised by the All India Tennis Association and the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
India has just 28 Olympic medals to its credit since making a debut back in 1900.
The villagers have pinned their hopes for development on Ravi, whose success has much to do with the sacrifices and moral guidance of one man -- his father Rakesh Kumar Dahiya.
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.
The Indian Olympic contingent was given a warm send-off on Monday, but it was Bollywood actor and IOA's Goodwill Ambassador Salman Khan who turned out to be the cynosure of all eyes, instead of the 20-odd Rio-bound athletes present on the occasion.
Will India finally reach the elusive double-digit mark? Raj Kishore Mishra, former joint secretary at the sports ministry, for one, is willing to stick his neck out on the possibility.
However, the WFI decided to give Ritu, who competes in the 50kg category, a chance to compete in the 53kg since she had missed out on the Asian Games trials due to a flight issue.
An important factor in India's stupendous success in 2021 was the way the government opened its coffers to support athletes.
This year a whopping 74 winners were picked for the national honours, including an unprecedented five Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratnas and 27 Arjuna awardees.
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.
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