'Narsingh Yadav must go to Rio Olympics 2016'

Let me start this piece by saying that I am an ardent fan of Sushil Kumar who with backtoback medals in two successive Olympics has proved to be the finest wrestler the country has producedI was on the panel covering the London Olympics for a leading TV channel and we were privileged to see up close his incredible training regimen peep into his private life and even savour his impish sense of humour when he responded to the charge that he had bitten an opponentrsquos earNarsingh Yadav won a quota place for Rio with a bronze at the Las Vegas World Crsquoships last year picafpldquoNot truerdquo he said puckishly ldquoI am a vegetarianrdquoAs everyone now knows his chances of representing India for his third Olympics in a row are slender to nonexistent despite taking the matter to CourtThe Wrestling Federation of India is strongly of the view that Narsingh Yadav who won a quota place for India by winning a bronze medal at the World Championship in Las Vegas last year should get the nodSushil KumarSushil missed that event because of injury and has since been clamouring for a trial fight against Narsingh with the winner to go to RioIf the WFI succumbed to his pleas not only would the established procedure of quota place winners being sent to the Games be jettisoned but also a very unwholesome can of worms would be opened upSushil has also bitterly complained that if the quota place was written in stone the WFI should have informed him last year itselfBy allowing him to continue to train and spending about R75 lakhs under the Government scheme for training medal contenders he has in effect been lulled into a false sense of securityWhile I have great sympathy for the champion wrestler for having been led up the garden path so to speak I am of the opinion that his demand for a trial fight against Narsingh cannot mdash indeed should not mdash be entertainedWhy cause chaosOtherwise it would result in utter chaos in the selection process not only in wrestling but also across the boardFurther in the absence of malafides or patent illegality if the courts were to interfere in the selection of aggrieved athletes I respectfully submit it would amount to judicial overreach not to mention the unnecessary additional burden on courts groaning under the weight of thousands of casesOn merit there are other reasons why Sushilrsquos case appears untenableHe was at his imperious best in the 66kg category but this category does not exist in this yearrsquos OlympicsHis musculature at 66kg was simply breathtaking Being a short man bulking up another eight kgs of pure muscle without impacting his mobility speed and other relevant attributes is stretching it a bitHe currently weighs 77kgs but other leading lights in the 74kg category weigh 80kgs at this point and are much bigger and strongerThey manage to trim down to 74kgs by various legitimate means just before weighin Sushilrsquos experience at 74kg is very limited having wrestled in only one competition since his injuryNarsingh on the other hand is a natural at 74kg and has been wrestling at that weight since 2008 with reasonable success with bronze medals at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games being part of the storySo apart from the quota place there are other substantial reasons for Narsingh to go to Rio As pointed out he is a natural 74kg wrestlerHe is bigger and taller than Sushil which is a great advantage It must be remembered that this category is to wrestling what the middleweight category is to boxingBe fair to NarsinghIt has poundforpound the best strongest and most agile wrestlers in the world His eightyear experience at that weight is four times more than SushilrsquosIn the runup to the Olympics it is extremely unfair on Narsingh to be distracted by such controversiesHe has won the quota he has ticked all the other boxes he should go