New Delhi: Sushil Kumar and his childhood buddy Yogeshwar Dutt. have reasons to feel dejected as FILA scrapped two freestyle weight categories (6okg and 66 kg) from the 2016 Rio Games. India won three Olympic medals in the last two Games in these two categories.
According to Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) secretary general Raj Singh the FILA decision will be a body blow to Indian wrestling.
"The decision will affect Indian wrestling. We had high hopes from both the categories because we have won three medals in the last two Olympics. But it will also affect other countries as well," Singh said.
Sushil and Yogeshwar though still have three years to move into the new weight categories and their coaches have different viewpoints on the weights they should move into.
Double Olympic medallist Sushil -- bronze in 2008 Beijing Games and silver in 2012 London Games -- fought in the 66kg freestyle category, while Yogeshwar won the 60kg bronze in London.
The immediate reaction to the changes was mixed, particularly from the two coaches of the two Olympians.
While Sushil's coach and father-in-law Satpal feels that he should go into the 65 kg category as it is the nearest to the division he has been fighting in. Another long time coach Yashvir Singh wants him to go into the 74 kg weight category by putting on eight kilos to improve his chances.
Both Satpal and Yashbir concede that the tweaking will have some adverse affect on the chances of the two winning medals in Rio.
"I think the world body has something against India. We were doing really well in the 60kg and the 66kg categories and now they have suddenly removed the two categories from the next Olympics. It will surely affect our medal prospects. We were targeting 5-6 medals in Rio and now we have to re-draw our plans," Satpal, a 1982 Asian Games gold medallist said.
