Yogeshwar Dutt won the grudge match against Amit Dhankar in Friday’s selection trial for Asian Olympic Qualifiers.
A large crowd gathered at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium (IGI) to witness 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Dutt and his fierce opponent Dhankar, who moved the Delhi High Court challenging the decision of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to select the former for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games without conducting trials in June 2014.
Forty four bouts were lined up on Friday in 11 different weight categories of Freestyle and Greco-Roman categories to select grapplers for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers, a trial event to secure quota place for the Rio Games, in Astana, Kazakhstan from March 18-20. Dutt vs Rajneesh and Bajrang vs Dhankar (both in 65kg) and Amit Kumar Dahiya vs Rahul Aware and Sandeep Tomar vs Aware (both in 57kg) were amongst the most sought-after.
Dhankar and Rajneesh originally compete in 70kg while Bajrang participates in 61kg. Dutt has always preferred 65kg. But, the rejig in the weight division was necessitated as there’s no 61kg and 70kg in the Olympic Games.
The freestyle weight categories are 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg and 125kg.
When the competition for 65kg started, everyone expected another showdown between Dutt and Dhankar. Before this, Dutt had to defeat Rajneesh while Bajrang had to get past Dhankar.
Both the bouts – two rounds of three-minute each – witnessed a series of protests and allegations of favouritism. While Dutt beat Rajneesh 8-7 in a closely-contested bout, Dhankar edged past Bajrang 6-4.
Rajneesh contested the outcome of his bout and challenged the judges’ decision, but his appeal was rejected by the technical jury. Similarly, Bajrang accused Dhankar of playing too defensively and challenged two points earned by him during a leg lock.
Dutt, too, argued on Bajrang’s behalf and even complained to WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh, but the jury stuck to the referee’s decision. Later, Bajrang refused to shake hands with Dhankar.
This paved the way for the ‘grudge’ match between Dutt and Dhankar. The bout began on an aggressive note. Each time Dhankar managed to get a hold on Dutt’s ankle, he would manage to wriggle out of it. Dutt would earn his points by twirling Dhankar on his back with great speed and precision.
He led Dhankar 4-2 after the first round. In the final round, Dhankar tried his best to pin Dutt down to level the score and then go for a kill, but the Incheon Asian Games gold medallist went for his famous ankle-clutching hold to beat his opponent 7-2.
However, the biggest disappointment of the day was Dahiya, who failed to recover from a knee injury sustained 10 days back before the trials, and lost both his bouts against Utkarsh Kale and Aware meekly. Later, Aware beat Tomar 9-8 in a neck-and-neck fight.