Indian Wrestler Sushil Kumar Qualifies for 2018 Commonwealth Games

Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar qualified for 2018 Commonwealth Games after defeating Jitender Kumar in the 74kg weight category on Friday, 29 December.

Out of action since the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Indian wrestler had made a comeback this year and won a gold at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship.

Due to an injury, Kumar was unable to take part in the 2015 selection trials for World Championships that also posed as Rio Olympic qualifiers.

After getting a royal snub from the Wrestling Federation of India and Delhi High Court, which cost him a chance to participate in the Olympics last year, to allegations of spiking drinks of a fellow wrestler who qualified for the Rio Games in his weight division, the country's most decorated Olympian faced it all in 2017.

Apart from Sushil (74kg), other freestyle grapplers who have booked their places in the Commonwealth Games are Rahul Aware (57kg), Bajrang (65kg), Somveer (86kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Sumit (125kg).

The six freestyle wrestlers also qualified for next year's Senior Asian Wrestling Championship to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Besides, 10 Greco-Roman wrestlers also qualified for the Asian Wrestling Championships. They are Rajender (55kg), Gyanender (60kg), Vikram Kurade (63kg), Manish (67kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg), Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Harpreet Singh (82kg), Sunil (87kg), Hardeep (97kg) and Naveen (130kg).

However, the selection trials held at the IG Stadium was marred by an unfortunate incident when a brawl broke out between the supporters of Sushil and his bitter rival Parveen Rana.

Sushil won all his bouts today but things took an ugly turn when Rana, after losing to the former in the semifinal clash, claimed that the decorated wrestler's supporters beat him and his elder brother "for daring to take the ring" against him.

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