Sushil Kumar pulls out from Asian Championships

Sushil was touted to be India’s top medal contender at the Asian Championship which is scheduled to take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. However, the Tribune reported that the 34-year-old picked up a knee injury during the trials for the Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games. Considering the seriousness of the injury, Sushil has now stated that participating in the Asian event will disturb his sore knees and that’s why he doesn’t want to take part and rather focus on the upcoming Commonwealth Games in April.

Now, after he bowed out of the tournament, Sushil’s competitor Parveen Rana's name has been suggested by WFI. Both Rana and Sushil took part in the event trail in last December and that bout ended on a controversial note as a brawl broke out between the supporters of the two wrestlers. After the incident came to the light, the former had alleged Sushil for personally instigating his supporters to attack him after the selection trials.

However, the bad blood between the duo dates back to the time of national championship in which Rana had claimed to have received threats. A day after the scuffle between the camps of the wrestlers, an FIR was filed against Sushil under sections 323 [voluntarily causing hurt] and 341 [wrongful restraint] of the IPC. However, Sushil had denied the claims while adding that he was bitten by Rana during the trial bout.