Wrestler Jitender Kumar on Friday prevailed over Amit Dhankar in an intense 74kg trial bout to qualify for the season-opener in Italy and the Asian Championship here but needs to win a medal to nip Sushil Kumar’s shot at Olympic qualification.
World Championship stars Deepak Punia (86kg) and Ravi Dahiya (57kg) did not have to break much sweat after they were given direct entries into the final. Sumit Malik (125kg) and Satyawart Kadian (97kg) also locked their places with smart victories.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) had earlier announced that winner of the Friday’s trials will compete at the ranking-series event in Italy (January 15-18), Asian Championships in New Delhi (February 18-23) and the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Xian (March 27-29) but its president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said they can hold fresh trials ahead of the Xian event.
In Greco-Roman, Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Gyanender (60kg), Ashu (67kg), Sunil (87kg), Hardeep (97kg) and Naveen (130kg) booked their places in the squad.
