It is going to be after a long time when Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Vinesh and Sakshi Malik will not be part of Asian Wrestling Championships 2023. Other wrestlers like Deepak Poonia, Anshu Malik, Sarita Mor Maan and Sonam were also sitting on dharna recently. But they were part of the trials and performed brilliantly making a place in the Indian squad.
Among them Deepak, Anshu and Sarita have won a medal in World Championship while Deepak, Anshu have been participants in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Asian Championships will be held in Noor Sultan, Kazakhstan from April 7 to 10. Commonwealth Games gold medallist Naveen Malik’s loss was the biggest upset in the two-day trials held at KD Jadhav Hall in New Delhi. Naveen won a gold in Asian Under-23 Championship too, but in the trial, he lost to Mulayam Yadav of Uttar Pradesh who won a medal in the World Under-20 Championship last year.
Meanwhile, World Under-20 medallist Sagar Jaglan was also defeated by National Games gold medallist Yash Tushir in 74 kg category. Similarly, in the women’s 76 kg category, Kiran lost to Bipasha which was another big upset. Kiran has been participating in the international competitions in last few years. She has been a medal holder of the World Under-20, Priya was also picked in this category.
All the eyes will be on Aman Sehrawat, who has won the World Under-23 gold. He has achieved the distinction of being the only Indian to win gold in the championship so far. He has won a gold in the Asian Under-23, National Championship and National Games. Aman has also won a medal in Dan Kolov tournament last year and in Zagreb Open ranking tournament last month.
Aman defeated Rahul and Aatish, medallists of the National Championship. After trailing 0-4 against Aatish, he won the bout by 14-4. This apart, Antim, Neelam, Sito, Ritika and Priya were selected in the Indian team. They all have won medals in the junior international events last year. Anshu Malik won a gold in Asian Championship in 2020 in Almaty while Sarita is a two-time Asian Champion. Deepak Punia won a silver in the World Championship in Noor Sultan in 2019.
the Indian
wrestling squad:
Men (Freestyle) – Aman Sehrawat, Pankaj, Anuj Kumar, Mulayam Yadav, Yash
Tushir, Deepak, Jonty Kumar, Deepak Poonia, Deepak Nehra and Anirudh.
Greco Roman – Rupin, Sumit, Neeraj, Ashu, Vikas, Sajan, Rohit Dahiya,
Sunil Kumar, Narendra Cheema, Naveen.
Women – Neelam, Last, Sito, Anshu Malik, Sarita, Sonam, Manisha, Nisha, Ritika, Priya.