Asian Games 2018: Controversy in wrestling selections, retrial announced for 57 KG

Result of the bout between Utkarsh Kale and Sandeep Tomar was withheld and later withdrawn as the Wrestling Federation of India announced a retrial for the 57 kg category.

Mausam Khatri edged out Satyawart Kadiyan in the final round of trails for a place in the 97kg category. (Source: PTI)

Utkarsh Kale is still trying to figure out how he lost to Sandeep Tomar despite leading by five points with less than a minute to go. He is showing the video of the bout to his coach and asking him to explain why Tomar was awarded four points with just 17 seconds left. His coach has no explanation, only that they will avenge the loss on Wednesday. Kale goes back to watching the video.

The wrestling selection trials for the Asian Games 2018 on Saturday ended in a controversial manner with Wrestling Federation of India deciding a re-trial in the men’s 57kg freestyle category. Kale and Tomar had both ended with a win and similar classification points after two bouts each in the round-robin system (Nordic System). The third wrestler, Ravi Kumar will also compete on Wednesday as he had a win and a loss from two bouts.

Bajrang Punia and Sushil Kumar were selected without any trials after taking into consideration their recent performances at the international level. Pawan Kumar, Mausam Khatri and Sumit Malik were selected to represent India in Jakarta in the men’s 86kg, 97kg and 125kg respectively.

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Kale led Tomar 8-5 with 20 seconds remaining in their bout then the latter got a controversial four-point throw. Kale challenged but the decision was upheld and a point was awarded to Tomar for failed challenge. But Tomar still needed two more points to match Kale for classification points which he eventually did.

The result, however, was withheld and later withdrawn and a new trial date was given for 57kg category.

Bajrang, Sushil to give Worlds trials
The team selected for Asian Games will represent India at the 2018 World Championship as well but Bajrang and Sushil, who got entry to the team with any trial will have to appear for when for the Worlds team. A trial for non-Olympic weight categories and men’s 65kg and 74kg will be held later this month. The wins for the two categories will then wrestle Bajrang and Sushil to qualify for World Championships team.

Freestyle Team
57kg: Re-trial
65kg: Bajrang Punia
74kg: Sushil Kumar
86kg: Pawan Kumar
97kg: Mausam Khatri
125kg: Sumit

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Greco Roman Team
60kg: Gyanender
67kg: Manish
77kg: Gurpreet Singh
87kg: Harpreet Singh
97kg: Hardeep Singh
130kg: Naveen