The Indian grapplers are putting finishing touches to their preparations for the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament which will kick off at Astana, Kazakhstan from 18 to 20 March. Any Olympic Qualification Tournament attaches immense significance and the Astana event will be no different as far as Indian wrestling is concerned.
“Our wrestlers are all braced up for the Astana event – they have put in a lot of hard work at our preparatory camp and I’m keeping fingers crossed,” says Indian men’s freestyle wrestling head coach Jagminder Singh, hours before the country’s wrestling contingent boarded the flight to Kazakhstan.
It may be worth recalling that Jagminder is the third chief coach of the Indian men’s freestyle wrestling team in last twelve months or so – after Kuldeep Malik and Vinod Kumar. “I have hardly spent one month with the wrestlers and there is not much you can change or fine-tune, in terms of training as grapplers were used to a scheduled routine already,” he makes his point.
Jagminder, who works as ACP in Delhi Police, is a coach of high credentials – he was the country’s chief coach at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games and, also it was under his guidance that Sushil Kumar won the coveted gold medal at the 2010 World Championships in Moscow – the first time an Indian grappler cornered the yellow metal on the world stage.
Clearly, the expectations will be sky-high when the team lands in Kazakhstan. “I don’t think there is any pressure on me to deliver. I want all my grapplers to perform well and seal their Olympic berths,” he says. So far, only Narsingh Yadav has made the cut in the men’s 74kg freestyle category by cornering a coveted bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas.
The 65-kg freestyle category will be under the scanner as star grappler Yogeshwar Dutt will be competing in Astana. Rahul Aware will be grappling in the 57-kg freestyle category and is tipped to be a medal prospect.
The likes of Satyawart Kadiyan (97kg), Somveer (86kg) and Hitender (125kg) won’t have it easy as Indians haven’t really set the mat on fire in the higher weight categories. “I’m hopeful to see five freestyle wrestlers qualify for the Rio Olympics,” Jagminder oozes confidence. Indians hopes in the greco-roman category will hinge on 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ravinder Singh, while the likes of Ravinder (66kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg), Hardeep Singh (98kg) and Naveen (130kg) will seek to rise to the occasion.
Vinesh Phogat looks India’s best bet among the woman grapplers along with Babita Kumari and vastly experienced Navjot Kaur. The trio of Sakshi Malik, Anita and Kiran will look to make an impression in Astana. Clearly, the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament is an opportunity for Indian wrestlers to make amends after a downbeat showing in the 2015 World Championship in Las Vegas.
