Indian wrestling is well and truly on an all-time high as the country, in what turned out to be a double delight, earned a maiden World Cup berth on the back of its best-ever sixth-place finish in men's free-style at the World Championships in Budapest. Photos: Amit, Bajrang return home to rousing welcome

India finished the tournament in the men's freestyle category with 23 points, which has catapulted the country to sixth in rankings behind Iran, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and USA.

As per the FILA rules, the top eight teams in the World Championship automatically qualify for the World Cup and Amit Kumar Dahiya's silver medal in the 55kg and Bajrang's bronze in the 60kg freestyle category ensured India its maiden World Cup appearance next year. Also Read: Amit Kumar - World champ, almost

The freestyle wrestlers produced India's best-ever show at the World Championship in a span of two days.

The news couldn't have come at an opportune time for the Indian wrestling community as the sport battled successfully to regain its place on the Olympic Games roster following its controversial axing in February by the IOC. Also Read: After silver, bronze lining

The news of India's World Cup qualification is music to the ears for two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt.

"It's raining good news for India as after wrestling's re-inclusion in the Olympic movement, our wards performed extremely well in the World Championship. Their efforts paid rich dividends as now India's sixth rank has led to our World Cup qualification for the first time in the history of the men's senior wrestling," chief coach Vinod Kumar told PTI.

"World Championship acts as a qualifying event for the World Cup. In the next year's World Cup, free-style wrestlers will be spearheading the country's challenge while the fate of greco-roman and women's wrestlers will be decided after the championship," he said.

... contd.

ALSO READ Strike force gets fresh legs

Please read our terms of use before posting comments