Asian Games gold medalist Bajrang Punia and Two-time Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar decided not to play in the senior national wrestling championship. The championship will start from 29 November to 1 December in Jalandhar. An official of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) confirmed this. The WFI has always been saying that it is mandatory for all wrestlers to play in this championship, but WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh seems helpless in front of star wrestlers Bajrang and Sushil and WFI is accepting every request of both wrestlers, while the other wrestler has been forced to play. Bajrang decided to withdraw from this championship citing preparations for the upcoming international tournaments.
Bajrang Punia, who won the quota of Tokyo Olympics for the country, participated in the last national championship in 2016 at Gonda. At the same time, 36-year-old Sushil took part in the World Championships this year, but due to his poor performance, he could not get the quota of Tokyo Olympics for the country. The Commonwealth Games gold medalist wrestler decided not to play in the national championship to prepare for next year's Asian Championship. He has just given his medical. He last played in the 2017 National Championships in Indore when other rival wrestlers withdrew against him by touching his feet.
At the same time, among the women players, World Championship bronze medalist Vinesh Phogat (55 kg) and Olympic medalists Sakshi Malik (62 kg), Divya Kakran (68 kg), Seema Bisl (50 kg), Sarita More (57 Kg) and Navjot Kaur (65 kg) are prominent. In the men's category, in addition to Greco Roman's star Sajan (77 kg), top freestyle wrestlers Gaurav Balyan (74 kg), Sumit Malik (125 kg), Satyavrat Kadian (97 kg) and Rahul Mann (70 kg) will be seen playing.
