Indian wrestlers hope to emulate Jadhav's feat

NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (UNI): More than five decades after Kashaba Jadav bagged Independent India's first individual Olympic medal at Helsinki, Indian wrestlers hope to emulate the grappler when they reach Athens.

The Athens bound seven-member Indian wrestling team includes six in freestyle- Yogeshwar Dutt(55kg), Sushil Kumar(60), Ramesh Kumar(66), Sujeet Mann(74), Anuj Kumar(84) and Palwinder Singh Cheema(120) while Mukesh Khatri(55) is the lone Indian grappler in the Greco-Roman category.

Talking to UNI before flying to Bulgaria, seniormost member of the side Sujeet Mann said,"We had rigorous 25-day training first at Shilaru in Himachal Pradesh and then we slugged it out for nearly a month at the NIS, Patiala.

I also underwent a three-month training in Canada.

Now we are going to Sofia, Bulgaria for the last leg of our training and I hope we can pull off a surprise or two at Athens." Talking about his performance, the grappler who, along with Sushil Kumar, qualified in September last year during the World Wrestling Championship in New York said," I think I'm in good form.

I've won the silver at the Senior Asia Championship in Iran early this year and there too I missed the gold by a whisker." The World Championship saw him finishing eigth while in the Asian Championship he stood seventh.

The wrestler, currently ranked eigth, had also won bronze at the Asian Championship last year and was declared the best grappler at the Commonwealth Championship in Canada where he bagged gold.

He also won the silver at the Canada Cup.

"If I get a favourable draw, I think I can finish among the top two wrestlers at Athens," asserted the Arjuna awardee.

Fellow wrestler Sushil Kumar also seemed confident of a good show at Athens.

"We've toiled hard under our Georgian coach Vladimir Mesvirishvill and we won't disappoint there at Athens," he said.

Sushil won the gold at the Commonwealth Championship last year and followed it up with a bronze in the Asian Championship.

He also stood fourth in the World Championship in the US.

Meanwhile, for Yogeshwar, Athens means a rare chance to represent the country at the highest level and his aim is to give it his best, without bothering about medals.

"I won't commit anything but I'm positive about a positive show there." The wrestler who secured an Olympic berth during the second qualifying tournament at Sofia, said preparation had been excellent and he was waiting to see how it pays off at Athens.

"I won gold at Sofia and in the final beat the Korean who had won the World Championship in 1999.

That gave my confidence a huge boost," he said.

Palwinder Singh Cheema remains another wrestler to look out for.

Son of two time Asian Games bronze medallist Sukchain Singh, Cheema won the bronze at Busan Asian Games.

Earlier he had won the World Junior Wrestling Championship in 2001.

Ramesh Kumar will lead teh Indian challenge in the 66kg category.

The Arjuna awardee wrestler won bronze at Sofia last year to ensure his berth at Athens.

Meanwhile, Mukesh Khatri is also undergoing thorough training in the United States with the US Olympic team.

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