New Delhi: The selection committee of Wrestling Federation of India on Tuesday selected the 16-member Greeco Roman and Free Style team during the selection trials conducted at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. The team will represent country in the Senior World Wrestling Championship in Las Vegas, USA from 7-12 September 2015.

The selection committee comprised of WFI President and Member Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (Chairman), Secretary General V N Prasood (Convener), Vice- President RK Hooda (Member), Treasurer Bhola Nath Singh (Member), Joint Secretary Darshan Lal (Member), Executive Member & Olympian Jai Prakash (Member), Chief Coach Kuldeep Singh (Member), Foreign Expert Vladimer Mestvirishvili (Member), Incharge Coach Mahabir Prasad (Member) and Foreign Expert Emzar Makharadze (Member) selected Indian Free Style and Greeco Roman Style men’s wrestling team on the basis of their performance in the trials.

On the team selected on Tuesday, WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said, “The level of competition we have seen today in the trials shows that our preparations for the Rio Olympic Games are on right track. I am convinced with the performance of our wrestlers and confident that they will do much better in the World Championship this time. Now this 16 member team will travel to Kazakhstan to participate in the International Wrestling Tournament which will be a good international exposure for our players".

In the hard fought bout of Free style under 65 kg weight category, Olympic medalist Yogeshwar Dutt beat Asian Championship Gold medalist Amit Dhankhar 6-3 while in the 74 kg weight category Olympian Nar Singh Pancham Yadav defeated Parveen Rana from Railway Sports Promotion Board 6-5 in a very close clash. In the 57 kg weight category Commonwealth Games medalist Amit Kumar overcame Sandeep Tomar of Services Sports Control Board 3-2. Asian Games medalist Mausam Khatri also booked his berth for the World Championship as he defeated Satywart Kadian 6-0.

In the 61 kg weight category, Sonu from Haryana (SSCB) is only selected for the Kazakhstan Tournament as he will have to give final trial against Bajrang before the World Championship. The Commonwealth Games medalist Bajrang couldn’t participate in today’s trials due to injury. On the basis of the request already received from Bajrang mentioning his inability to attend the trails and considering his past performance, the selection committee has already decided that the finalist of his weight category will only be selected for Kazakhstan Tournament which will be held before World Championship. The dates of the trial will be intimated to the wrestlers later.

The Senior World Wrestling Championship will be the first chance for Indian wrestlers to book their berth for Rio Olympic Games 2016.

Free Style Results

57 kg : Amit Kumar (DEL) beat Sandeep Tomar (SSCB) 3-2, 61 kg : Sonu (HAR,SSCB) beat Pardeep 3-2, 65 kg : Yogeshwar Dutt (HAR) beat Amit Dhankar (HAR) 6-3, 70 kg : Arun (SSCB) vs Manoj (UP) - Arun got walkover, 74 kg : Narsingh Yadav (MAH) beat Parveen Rana (RSPB) 6-5, 86 kg: Naresh Kumar (RSPB) beat Gopal Yadav (RSPB) 7-3, 97 kg : Mausam Khatri (HAR) beat Satywart Kadian (HAR) 6-0, 125 kg : Sumit (RSPB) beat Krishan (HAR) 2-0

Greeco Roman Style

59 kg : Ravinder Singh (HAR) beat Gaurav Sharma (SSCB) 2-0, 66 kg : Deepak (SSCB) beat Anil Kumar (RSPB) 3-0, 71 kg : M Rafique (SSCB) beat K K Yadav (SSCB) 3-2, 75 kg : Gurpreet Singh (PB) beat Rajbir Chhikara (RSPB) 3-1, 80 kg : Harpreet Singh (PB) beat Ravinder Khatri (SSCB) 1-0, 85 kg: Manoj Kumar (HAR) beat Rambir (RSPB) 8-0, 98 kg :Hardeep (RSPB) beat Bhim (SSCB) 3-0, 130 kg : Naveen (SSCB) beat Sonu (HAR) 8-0