Wrestling - A sport that is mainly restricted to rural areas of a few North Indian states like Haryana and Uttar Prades (U.P.) has been jostling for space along with Shooting and Badminton as the most successful sport in multi-sport competitions like the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.
The sport has been seeing an upward graph ever since Sushil Kumar won India an unexpected Bronze at the Beijing Olympics. This tally was doubled in London with Yogeshwar Dutt also chipping in with a Bronze in addition to Sushil’s Silver.
India has been on the medal roster ever since the 2009 World Championships through Rakesh Kumar’s bronze, Sushil was the World Champion the next year. 2013, however, was the most successful for India with 3 medals including a bronze in Greco-Roman. And Narsingh Yadav’s bronze last year needs no elaboration.
India won an unprecedented 5 medals at the 2014 Asian Games including a first time Gold won by Yogeshwar Dutt.
India won medals in 13 of the 14 categories at Glasgow Commonwealth Games including 5 Golds.
The momentum generated by this progress seems to be flowing into Rio with an unprecedented 8 wrestlers qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza which is now barely a month away.
India is sending 3 Women Freestyle Grapplers, likewise in the Men's Freestyle and it’s a matter of great joy that 2 Greco-Roman Grapplers are joining them, that too in the heavier weight divisions of 85 and 98 kg.
Our strengths are more in the Freestyle section so let’s analyse their chances at Rio. Firstly the ladies.
Vinesh Phogat - 48 kg
She first broke onto the international scene at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 and despite her inexperience won Gold quite comfortably. This was followed up with a highly creditable bronze at the Asian Games with her only loss in the event that too an extremely narrow one coming at the hands of top Japanese contender Eri Tosaka who went on to with the title.
At Incheon, she had defeated a strong North Korean Yongmi Pak before simply dismantling her Uzbek and Mongolian opponents. Remember all this at the tender age of 19.
A silver at the Asian Championships followed in early 2015 and predictably a narrow loss to another Japanese Yuki Irie.
After threatening to be Asia’s best and rise in world rankings Vinesh’s performance showed a blip with 1st round loss at Vegas World Championships which was Rio’s first qualifying tournament.
Subsequent below par performances at this year’s Asian Championships and the Asian qualifiers was followed by the shocking disqualification at the 1st world qualifiers which would have mentally scarred most young athletes.
But Vinesh’s tenacity was to the fore in the last World Olympic qualifiers where she simply went through 5 more than decent grapplers for the loss of just 3 points. Vinesh was unbeatable in that tournament.
It is pertinent to note that her earlier vulnerability to single and double leg attacks which was evident in the Wrestling Pro-league was absent in this tournament and that augurs well for Rio.
Her tough competition comes from triple World Champion Eri Tosaka and current European Games champion Mariya Stadnik.
A medal from Vinesh is expected. If she is not drawn in the same bracket as Tosaka and Stadnik a spot in the final beckons.
Yogeshwar Dutt – 65 kg
The Olympic bronze medallist from London in the 60 kg category, this vastly experienced wrestler has yet to lose a tournament in this weight category. The current Commonwealth and Asian Games champion has had his share of injuries and at 33 that is a big worry.
But the multitude of moves that he brings to the mat makes him a formidable force against younger and stronger opponents and that was visible at Incheon against the extremely physical Chinese Katai Yeerlanbieke and the Tajik wrestler Yusupov.
Just recently he held off Ikthiyor Navruzov the reigning world Silver Medallist as well at the Pro-Wrestling League.
This match is etched in memory as one in which the Uzbek just could not break through Dutt’s defences.
It was unfortunate that Dutt missed the Vegas World Championships as that would have helped gauge his Rio prospects better.
The competition at the Asian Olympic qualifiers had no answer to Dutt, who is again looking in extremely good shape.
At the Olympics, a multitude of world/continental champions in the form of the athletic French World Champion Chamizo, Chinese Katai Yeerlanbieke, former world champion Ramonov (who just recently defeated Chamizo at Medved tourney), David Safaryan await Dutt not to mention Navruzov.
If Dutt gets beaten in Brazil it has to be by someone really good. Our money can certainly be on another bronze from this veteran.
Narsingh Yadav – 74 kg
Probably the most talked about Indian wrestler from September 2015, initially for his World Cup bronze and later due to the stormy court battles with Sushil Kumar.
Ever since London 2012, Yadav has been the man who has represented India in all the difficult tournaments.
Asian games 2014 bronze, World Championships 2015 bronze, nearly won the bronze at 2013 World Championships as well and to top it all off unbeaten at the Pro-Wrestling league.
Just going back further he was Delhi Commonwealth Games champion and Asian champion both in 2010.
If he has not won more it is because he has not been sent to any other tournament. At least a top 6 finish in tournaments across 6 years. Does one need to verify his credentials?
The redoubtable American Jordan Burroughs is faster than anybody, but nobody can match Narsingh for his upper body strength. If you don’t believe me then you can ask 2014 World Champion Zalimkhan Khadjiev who did not realize what hit him that bronze medal match at the Las Vegas Worlds
What also goes in favor of Narsingh’s medal prospects is his wins over Livan Lopez, Zelimkhan Khadjiev, Soner Demirtas in the 2015 World Championships, the Mongol Purevjyvan Onorbat in the Pro-wrestling league and Jibrayil Hasanov in 2013 worlds.
Burroughs and the Russian Aniuar Geduev form big hurdles for Narsingh but expect a medal from the Indian.
Men’s Freestyle – 57kg
Think of Sandeep Tomar and two words spring up in my mind – fearless and extremely agile.
So impressive in this year’s Asian Championships which he won quite easily and more so at the World Olympic qualifiers where he won bronze. Point to note is that these were his first two senior international tournaments.
Babita Phogat and Sakshi Malik the other two lady freestyle wrestlers are quality wrestlers in their own right.
However, their chances of clinching a medal are quite stacked taking into factor the quality of wrestlers in their respective weight categories. Just too many of them are streets ahead of these two Indians. No disrespect to the abilities of these Babita and Sakshi.
But there is no doubt that the Indian Freestyle Wrestling squad is on the verge of creating history with 3 to 4 medals which would give a big boost to this still essentially rural Indian sport get out of the hinterlands of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and into the drawing rooms of the large Indian urban cities
