All eyes on Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik at Wrestling Nationals

The spotlight trained on them Vinesh Phogat gets an opportunity to test her fitness while a struggling Sakshi Malik will look to reinvent herself in the absence of the male stars at the Tata Motors Wrestling Nationals beginning FridayVinesh was forced to skip the World Championship in Budapest due to a lastminute elbow injury She was in imperious form following the historic goldwinning effort at the JakartaPalembang Asian GamesVinesh is one of the most formidable athletes and if she is fit it is highly unlikely she could be troubled by any of her compatriots The Railways athlete will compete in the 57kg instead of the 50kg category in which she won three gold medals this seasonFor Nationals I wont reduce weight The competition here wont be very strong and I have several important tournaments coming up in the next few months so I have to be consistent in maintaining weight for those event Vinesh told PTI when asked about the change in her weight categoryThe 24yearold said it is important to compete at Nationals because she lost a lot of time after the Asian Games due to the injuryNow I have a chance to restart with the Nationals I wont say it is warmup for me but it is good if I get into some competitions before bigger tournaments ahead It helps on getting that mindset she saidShe remains favourite for the gold but Vinesh says she cant name any strong opponentI know lot of wrestlers from the senior camp but there will be lot of juniors competing for the first time I dont know many of them so I have to see how it goes she said adding that her hunger for success only got stronger after injuries halted her progressIn complete contrast Sakhis career graph has taken a nosedive after her historic bronze medal at the Rio Olympic Games She could win only a bronze at the Gold Coast CWG in a notsostrong field while returning emptyhanded from the Asian Games before suffering a humiliating exit from the World ChampionshipThe 62kg will be a battle between Sakshi and the celebrated Geeta Phogat who has lost a bit of her sting of lateRitu Malik who had lost the bronze playoff at Budapest will compete in the 65kg while Railways Navjot Kaur will compete in 68kgLike Sakshi two time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar is also struggling and has decided to skip the event along with Bajrang Punia who is injuredAlso missing from action is Sandeep Tomar who too has been an exciting prospectTheir absence has taken a bit of sheen off the Nationals but it could help in figuring out a new line of wrestlers in the 74kg and 65kg categories Though Bajrang at the moment looks almost invincible a next generation of grapplers will give India a strong option in the 74kgJitender Kumar and Vinod look the next best options but they are yet to establish themselves as strong replacements for Sushil Jitender will compete in the 77kg here while Vinod will be a contender in the 74kgThis year the national championship also assumes significance as the muchtalked about contracts will be awarded on the opening day of the competitionsRailways RSPB are the defending champions in all three competitionsThe Wrestling Federation of India WFI will announce the names of the grapplers who will figure in seven categories of contracts with the highest bracket A offering Rs 30 lakhMore than 800 wrestlers from 27 states and two Boards RSPB and SSPB will be seen in action with the Greco Roman style grapplers taking to the mat firstCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever