Injury woes for Indian wrestling
Injury woes are beginning to hit the Indian wrestling contingent with barely two months left for the 2015 World Wrestling Championship to be held at Las Vegas, USA from September 7-14. If the prolonged back injury to 2014 Asian Games silver medallist Bajrang Punia was not enough, the country’s top grappler Sushil Kumar has also sustained a shoulder injury and will like Bajrang not take part in the selection trials for the 2015 World Wrestling Championship.
This are not easy days for the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The WFI could consider itself fortunate that at least injuries to two of their key wrestlers have occurred now and not just days or weeks before the 2015 World Wrestling Championship, thus providing adequate buffer time to Bajrang and Sushil to recuperate and be in best shape for the marquee event.
The World Wrestling Championship is always a big event for any wrestler and the fact that the event will also double as an Olympic qualifying events only enhances it significance and underpins the need for all Indian wrestlers to stay injury-free and give their best shot at winning a medal.
“It is disappointing to have these injuries. Sushil is a champion grappler, while Bajrang is a very talented youngster. You can’t do much about these injuries, fortunately these guys have enough time to recover, which is good for us,” a WFI official said.
The Indian wrestlers are to take part in a wrestling competition in Kazakhstan from July 23-26 and one is not sure whether Sushil will make it to the team for that event considering that he is giving the selection trials a miss. However, Bajrang is ruled out of the Kazakhstan tournament and is only expected to be fully fit by the first week of August.
The WFI has given time to Bajrang to recover and will hold trials for his weight category (61) once he is fit as a fiddle. One hopes that Indian wrestling overcomes these injury setbacks and turn in a resounding performance in the 2015 World Wrestling Championship.