India’s Yogeshwar Dutt has just expressed his opinion on the biggest debate that is taking the nation by storm and has the entire sporting fraternity divided – whether to grant the Olympic berth to Narsingh Yadav or Sushil Kumar. It is a battle between an athlete who has earned his spot, i.e., 26-year-old Narsingh, and the veteran Olympic medallist Sushil for a shot at Olympic glory in the 74kg category of men’s freestyle wrestling.
Bronze medallist at the 2012 London Olympics in the Men’s 60kg category of freestyle wrestling himself, Yogeshwar is no stranger to such a scenario. Back in 2004, it was right before the year’s edition of the Games to be held in Athens that wrestler Kripa Shankar Patel had claimed to be a better competitor than Dutt who had earned the quota for India. Patel subsequently made appeals to hold trials to decide the finalist at the Olympics.
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The issue escalated all the way to the Delhi High Court who ruled in favour of Yogeshwar Dutt, saying that he’s the one who rightfully deserved the spot.
This year, the story is somewhat similar with a notable contrast being Sushil’s stellar record at the Olympics – a career that has seen back-to-back bronze and silver medals in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 respectively. He now stands a chance to complete the triad, should he manage to represent the country in Rio this summer.
Although the WFI is yet to give its final verdict, word currently doing the rounds is that Sushil's chances look bleak because of the country’s unflinching stand on such matters in the past.
In his latest interview, Yogeshwar Dutt has told the media that it is entirely upon the federation to decide who gets the final berth to Rio, and whether to conduct trials before that. Till date, it has never happened that the wrestler who earned the quota didn’t make the cut for the Olympics.
Besides referring to his own prior example, Yogeshwar stated that there is no doubt regarding the supreme talent of either wrestler, and that whoever is selected will definitely not leave any stone unturned in his efforts to clinch a podium finish for India.
It is also a known fact that Narsingh has been consistent in his trade for a longer period in recent years whereas the 32-year-old Sushil has had his troubles going in and out of an injury which ruled him out of quite a number of tournaments.
Yogeshwar also believes that in an extremely physical sport like wrestling where the dynamics are continuously changing, it is crucial to stay in shape and be a regular competitor at the highest level.
Here is the full interview of Yogeshwar Dutt (Courtesy: NewsX)
