Narsingh Yadav or Sushil Kumar for Olympics? The debate continues

Will it be Narsingh Yadav or Sushil Kumar at next year's Olympics?

This seems to be the question everyone has after Yadav sealed a berth for the country in the 74kg weight category for Rio 2016 following a bronze-medal finish at the World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Going by Yadav's response to this question at a media interaction here on Wednesday, the wait surely continues.

Having travelled halfway across the globe in the past two days, the look of jet lag clearly showed on Yadav's face. He kept his calm as other questions were asked but lost his cool when asked about his take on who should make the cut.

"I can't understand why you guys have been going 'Sushil, Sushil' when you should be celebrating that I won the country a wrestling berth at Rio next year. It's up to the federation to decide. I just came back after winning our only medal at the World Championships and I get asked something else. I am asked this everywhere I go. Ask the right people, not me," said the Mumbai resident who practices at the Sports Authority of India complex in Kandivli. "As a matter of fact, Sushil congratulated me after the match. Not once in the conversation did either of us bring up the topic of who will take the berth," he added.

The Deputy Superintendent with the Maharashtra police, instead, focussed on his good show at Vegas. "The rest of the squad hadn't performed up to the mark. It was my last chance to make it count. There was a quota place up for stake. Winning a quota berth with almost a year left for the Olympics is a great thing. I can use this time for preparing myself and working on my weaknesses. I have saved myself the trouble of having to compete in qualifiers," said Yadav, who won a gold and bronze in the 74kg category at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2014 Asian Games, respectively.

What gave Yadav the reason to feel optimistic was his dramatic turnaround against France's Zelimkhan Khadjiev in the bronze-medal match at Vegas. Trailing 4-12 with just 40 seconds to go, Narsingh pulled off his signature 'Dhak' move. What followed was a vice-like grip on the head that allowed him to flip his French opponent and saw him land on his back. Yadav managed to pin him down on the mat for five seconds to clinch victory.

"Ye akhara mein seekha tha humne (I learnt this in the mud-wrestling pit). It's something that you know how to do on the mat but you don't really practice this during training. It starts with the wrestlers standing side-by-side.

You then move into a position to headlock the opponent. What follows is a thrust and me pulling the opponent over my shoulder to pin him on the mat. This needs to be done in very quick time. It took me less than five seconds. With time running out and me trailing by eight points, it had to come to instinct," said Yadav, who lost his semifinal bout to Unurbat Purevjav of Mongolia.

Sushil, who won back-to-back Olympic medals in the 66kg category at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, changed his weight category in 2014. He was forced to move up to the 74kg division after the world body – FILA – re-jigged the weight categories and the 66kg category was done away with.

With the wrestling federation set to make the decision next year, talks of a fight between Yadav and Kumar to decide who represents the country are also doing the rounds. This old-school approach has found a fan in none other than Kumar's coach Satpal Singh.

"It's a lovely idea. That way both these wrestlers will take their preparations even more seriously. That said, this ongoing debate can only be decided by the federation and not the two players involved. Instead of complaining that only one can go, we should be happy looking at the quality of both Yadav and Sushil. We're talking about the Olympics after all," added the 1982 Asian Games gold medallist.

Regardless of who represents India at Rio next year, Jordan Burroughs will be the one posing the biggest threat. The defending champion in the 74kg category proved his mettle by winning gold at the recently-concluded World Championships, his third in four editions.

Singh said his ward was best placed to end the American's reign at the top. "Sushil's record speaks for himself. He may be recovering from a shoulder injury but Sushil will only go to Rio if he feels he's fit to win a medal for the country. Wrestlers around the world fear him. If he's unable to go, India has an equally good wrestler to fall back on," he added.