Sushil Kumar vs Narsingh Yadav has thrown open a debate between potential medal winning candidate and rightful candidate. Sushil Kumar vs Narsingh Yadav has thrown open a debate between potential medal winning candidate and rightful candidate.

Sushil Kumar’s demand for a national trial to decide who should represent India in 74 kg at the Rio Games is neither unexpected nor outrageous. It will seem particularly cruel on Narsingh Yadav who has consistently fought in that weight division, earned a quota and a World Championship medal — as against Sushil — who’s been away from international meets for a season and a half. To fetch up in the end as the challenger just doesn’t feel fair. But, faulting a system of trials would be a lame excuse to stick to status-quo. Trials — or a semblance of well thought-out selections — are the norm in most top wrestling countries who regularly reap medals, and don’t blindly send grapplers who earn their countries quotas.

Selectors — usually respected former players and coaches — out there, do more than just rubber-stamp the entry lists comprising those who’ve gone out and won quotas. While the US conducted trials across 15 divisions in mid-April to decide who could aim at medals (and qualifications in categories where they were yet to pick quotas), even Russia packs off its wrestlers to a clutch of international meets after the Olympic qualifications are locked in, to take nuanced views on selections and finalise their Games-bound squads.

The federation’s only alibi (it can also be read as incompetence) is that it never set down a system of selection in stone — president Brij bhushan Sharan Singh, like his predecessors, never committed to nor denied holding of trials. But, the world’s leading wrestling nations will use up time upto July 18, and a system of trials to ascertain their best bets, and there’s no reason why India should lag — especially in the face of the storm that surrounds the Narsingh-Sushil conundrum — to put its systems in place, now. Here’s how some of the better wrestling countries go about choosing their challengers:

USA

The United States boasts of consistent procedures of qualifying for World Championships and Olympic Games. Jason Bryant, a long-time wrestling journalist and broadcaster who also worked with USA Wrestling, explains the process: “For World and Olympic Games, if there is a wrestler who medalled in the previous World Championships, that wrestler receives a bye to a best-of-three finals series.”

So, Jordan Burroughs won gold in Las Vegas, so he did not have to go through a ‘mini tournament’ to determine a finalist. He waited until there was a champion of the mini-tournament and then wrestled him (in this case, Andrew Howe). Burroughs won two matches to none to make the U.S. Team.

The same was the case in 97kg, where the U.S. had Olympic champion Jake Varner and World Champion Kyle Snyder at the same weight class. “Snyder beat Varner in 2015 in a best two-out-of-three championship series to make the World Team. He then won a World Championship. Snyder had a bye to the best-of-three Olympic Trials final where he beat Varner two matches to one,” Bryant says. Wrestlers are eligible to the mini-tournament of the Olympic team trials if they’ve been on podiums in international tournaments or at the US Open tournament, by being a former world/Olympic medallist, or by winning an NCAA (collegiate) title.

“To make a team for the U.S., you need to beat the finalist two out of three times,” he informs. Hypothetically, if Jake Varner, the Olympic Champion in 2012, didn’t compete for two years, and Snyder qualified the weight class, but Varner didn’t compete at Nationals, he would have an opportunity to compete in the Trials, but would not automatically get a chance to wrestle Snyder. He would have to wrestle in a mini tournament to earn the right to wrestle Snyder, according to Bryant.

“There are stipulations for injuries, but unlike Kumar, Snyder was actively competing through the entire quad,” he explains.

“The situation India has is like American Henry Cejudo winning gold in Beijing ‘08, not wrestling but once in the next four years, and demanding a one-match winner-take all against the guy who won the Trials. That would not happen in the U.S. (or Canada),” he recalls. Cejudo, incidentally lost in the semifinals of the Olympic trials ahead of London.

CANADA

Canada maintain a ranking system, where the top three are ranked by their finish at the national championships the previous year. The unranked wrestlers compete in a knockout-style of pool bracket. The pool bracket winner will then face the #3. The winner there will face the #2, the winner there will face the #1 in a best-two out of three bracket.

“At 48kg in women’s freestyle, Genn Morrison qualified the weight class by finishing top five in Las Vegas. She was the #1. Jasmine Mian had to beat her twice to make the Olympic team. She did so,” Bryant says. In weights where Canada was yet to earn quotas, the same procedure was kept. So, the athlete who won their Trials would then compete at the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier (and any subsequent Olympic qualifiers like in Turkey or Mongolia). “The athlete had their Olympic spot directly related to their performance at those events. Examples: Korey Jarvis (freestyle 125kg) and Jillian Gallays (women’s 53kg) each wrestled at the Pan Am qualifier and qualified the weight class for the Olympics. They are Canada’s representative,” he informs.

RUSSIA

In Russia, they take the champions of the Russian Nationals and typically send them to the European Qualifier. If they don’t qualify, then the #2 guy goes to the next one. Whoever has the best performance is their team member. “There have been a few cases where Russia puts its favored athlete in or says there is no trial. Abdulrashid Sadulaev (86kg freestyle) was basically placed on the team. He won the last two World championships,” Bryant informs.

But even when there’s a World or Olympic champion in a weight, sometimes Russia will go with a guy who had a better performance during the big events. “In 2013 when Narsingh beat Kurbanaliev in Budapest, Russia opted for Kurbanaliev instead of world champion Denis Tsargush,” he says.

JAPAN

Everyone including thrice Olympic gold medallists Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho take part in the All-Japan national championships which confirm their entries to the Olympics every quadrennial. A special wrestle-off is held a few months before the Olympics allowing as many as six grapplers per category to vie for the contested Olympic berths.

IRAN

They are the defending freestyle World Cup champions and there were plenty of upsets at the Iranian freestyle Olympic trials watched by over 9000 at the Azad Stadium on April 22. In the 85 kg, rank outsider Hossein Nouri, who has no title to his credit, became Iran’s surprise Rio entry, when he defeated World bronze medal winner Habibollah Akhlaghi in a best-of-three final, as well as 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Mojtaba Karimfar in the second round. Meysam Nasiri, 2016 Asian champion, was the upstart in 65 kg finals beating 2014 and 2015 world medallist Seyed Ahmad Mohammadi.

Alireza Mohammad Ghasemi won the quota for Iran in 74 kg placing 5th at the World Championship where Narsingh won bronze. However, World silver medallist at 70kg Hassan Yazdani – moved up a division and was successful in the new weight beating 2016 Asian champion Mostafa Hosseinkhani twice in the best of three final. Yazdani now heads to Rio.

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