Sushil Kumar moves court seeking trial for Olympics berth
Following up on his claims, Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar moved the Delhi HC today seeking a trial to determine India's entrant in the 74kg freestyle event at the Rio Olympics. The WFI had earlier gone ahead with Narsingh Yadav, who had won the lone spot, despite Sushil's plea to hold a trial.
The 74kg event has been the center of contention between the two worthy wrestlers after Sushil had staked a claim to the spot and demanded a trial between him and Narsingh to decide who would represent India. The issue heated up after Narsingh stuck to his guns as well saying he deserved to go as he had been the one to win the Olympics spot.
The lone spot in the category was won when Narsingh won the bronze at the World Championship in Las Vegas last year. Sushil, however, had to skip the event owing to a shoulder injury. While the rules state that Olympic quotas belong to the country and not the athlete, the WFI has been reluctant to hold trials for any of the wrestling categories.
Sushil had tried to downplay the issue earlier saying, “It is very simple as far Narsingh and I are concerned. Whoever wins the trial will go to Rio. We have trained together for many years now and we are friends. Every time there is a different situation (for qualifying). I qualified at the last moment in 2012 while I had secured my berth much earlier for the 2008 and 2004 Olympics.”
Sushil had knocked at the Union Sports Minister's door as well, but minister Sarbananda Sonowal made it clear saying, "Government has nothing to do with it and the Federation, which is an autonomous body, is the final authority."
But when the WFI had recommended Narsingh's name to the IOA in a bid to end the speculation, Sushil had warned he would move the court in case he did not receive a favorable response from the WFI and has now followed up on it.
“We had no option but to take the matter to the court as Sushil wants a chance to undergo a trial," a source close to Sushil said, reported ToI.
Supporting his claim, Sushil had further talked about how he had been practising hard for Rio and was, in fact, asked to do so by the WFI themselves.
"If it was already decided that the athlete winning the quota place would be the one going to Rio Games, then WFI should have told me and also my name should have been omitted from the sports ministry's TOP scheme.
"Then I would not have worked so hard in the last one year and also the government should not have wasted so much money and time on my training in India as well as abroad," Sushil had said, reported TOI.