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Indian ace wrestler Sushil Kumar has revealed that he was offered money to throw the final championship bout in the world meet at Moscow in 2010.
Sushil revealed that he was first spoken to by a member of his support staff who told him about the offer being made regarding the bout.
“A member of my entourage came up to me and said, ‘Sushil, kushti ke liye keh rahe hai (They want to talk about the bout)’.” said Sushil.
“When he explained the whole thing, I was aghast.”
The money put on the table was in the range of a few crore rupees, which is a large sum, especially for the sport of wrestling. The offer was communicated to one of the foreign coaches of the Indian team. Since the final was against a Russian wrestler, the match was being fixed to ensure a home victory.
“I said, ‘It’s very strange. Here, we are on the threshold of getting the winning belt home to India, and I’m supposed to tank the final?’” remembers Sushil. But putting these thoughts out of his mind, Sushil was able to put up a great performance and defeated Gogaev 3-1, to give India its only gold medal at the championships.
“It was not a matter of two or four crores. Humari bhi izzat ki baat thhi [it was also a matter of our pride],” said Sushil, as reported by the Times of India.
The entire experience was an extremely humbling experience for the champion, especially after the kind of support he got from the crowd. “As I climbed down from the mat, I looked up and remembered noticing that there was no one sitting. Everyone in the stadium was giving me a standing ovation. It was most humbling,” said Sushil.
Sushil has returned to his full training regime and is preparing for the world championships at Budepest which is scheduled to take place from September 16-22.
Sushil is a self confessed Sachin Tendulkar fan and revealed one of the conversations he shared with the cricketing maestro, in which Tendulkar advised him to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
‘If you want to win another medal then stay as you are and don’t follow these people by doing the things they do.’ When Sushil looked up to see which people, Tendulkar was pointing to some of his fellow cricketers. “I won’t name which ones. You make your conclusion,” he said with wink.
