Seven Indian wrestlers participated in the last Olympic Games at Rio. Two participated in free-style, two in Greco-Roman and three in the women’s category. With Sumit Malik qualifying in the 125 kg FS category yesterday, this number has succeeded in matching the number of seven wrestlers participating in Rio.
The Greco-Roman-style wrestlers are yet to be tested in the last World Olympic Qualifying Championship which is going on at Sofia, Bulgaria and this number may increase further.
Arjuna awardee Sumit performed brilliantly in the super heavyweight category. In the first qualifying bout, he defeated Aiaai Lazarev of Kyrgyzstan and took his revenge of defeat at the 2015 World Championship at Las Vegas. For the last 25 seconds, he was lagging behind in this bout. In the next bout, he defeated Alexandr Romanov of Moldova and then Rustam Iskandari of Tajikistan, 10-5, in the quarter-finals. In this bout too, he was trailing 2-4 at one time. In the semi-finals, he defeated Venezuelan Jose Daniel Diaz Robertti 5–0 to not only make it to the final of the World Olympic Qualifying competition but also confirmed his ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. The last time Rajiv Tomar competed in the Super Heavyweight category was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
At the same time, it is India’s misfortune that no Indian could qualify this time in the 74 kg weight category for which Sushil and Narsingh Yadav won acclaim in Rio. Amit Dhankad lost in this weight while Satyavrat Kadian could win just one match in the heavyweight category.
High hopes in the women are set on the 50kg frontier, who beat Anastasiya Yanotava of Belarus in their first bout in an 8-0 unilateral match, while in the quarter-finals the clash with Youth Olympic gold medalist Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren of Switzerland showed their good preparations as she was defeated by a unilateral margin of 10-2.
The Swiss player won the bronze medal last year at the Klippan Lady Open and got bronze in the France Grand Prix this year but Seema did not look back once she gained momentum. She now competes in the semi-finals with 33-year-old Anna Lukasiak of Poland who is the bronze medalist for the European Championship, while Seema is the bronze medalist at Asian Championship.
Ana also reached the medal round of the European Games two years ago. If Seema wins this bout, she will also qualify for the Olympics. Apart from this, Nisha competed in 68 kg and Pooja in 76 kg, but both of these weight categories are very difficult from the Indian point of view. Nisha won a single bout while Pooja lost her very first bout and was eliminated from this competition.
