From mismanaged injuries to poor fitness, wrestling trials paint a bleak picture

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya was in all sorts of trouble against little-known Atish Todkar and was eventually pinned to the mat for the most shocking result in the selection trials of the Asian Games on Sunday. Dahiya, known for his relentless attacks and gritty comebacks, was fighting with his injured right knee strapped, and clearly struggling with his movement.

In February, Dahiya was injured during a sparring session and diagnosed with a grade 2 tear (ACL and MCL). Close to six months now, he is yet to recover and seemed to have taken a big risk by rushing back to training and competing in the selection trials. He is out of the Asian Games and his challenge in the trials for the world championships -- set to take place before August 15 -- is as good as over. The worlds in Budapest, in September, is also a Paris Olympics qualifier.

"It is very disappointing but Ravi has not been able to train properly for 5-6 months now. We knew he was unfit but this being the Asian Games trials, he thought of taking a chance as there was nothing to lose," says Ravi's mentor Arun Kumar.

"He won't be able to give world championships trials. We will take an opinion from doctor Dinshaw Pardiwala and go for a permanent solution. If it is a surgery, we will go for it and comeback fully fit," he says.

World championship medallist Anshu Malik -- one of India's best talents in recent times -- is also staring at a bleak season. Anshu was injured during her semi-final bout against S Nanjo of Japan at the Asian Championships in April. The ligament injury (left knee) has done her cause no good and it seemed like she stepped onto the mat earlier than would have been advised. She lost to Sarita Mor in the first round.

In an important year of the Asian Games and Paris Olympics qualifiers, India's best wrestlers are struggling with injuries and form. What seemed to have added to their woes is the constant speculation about dates of selection trials that led to such hasty decision.

"She was doing rehab in Bangalore. We heard that trials will be held in June last week and the mistake was that she started to train in a hurry. For three months she was completely focussed on rehab but she was injured again. If the trials date had been announced earlier, she could take some more time to heal her injury. There was too much confusion regarding the trials and it did not do good to anyone," says Anshu's father Dharamvir Malik.

Arun, too, says that the uncertainty in trials played on Ravi's mind and they were constantly changing their plans of rehab and training.

He said that doctor Pardiwala had first advised Ravi two months of complete rest.

"The doctor said there was ninety percent tear in ligament and whether he would need a surgery or not will depend on how much he can recover in two months. So, we were asked to do another MRI. After the second MRI he said the condition was better but it will still take time for complete healing."

That was in early April when the Wrestling Federation of India was back to power and there was speculation that the trials will be held in May if the protest ends.

"It was getting better and with so we started training gradually to prepare for the trials but the pain was back and we were back to zero. We did rehab for 25 days and then did some mat practice because we thought of competing in a ranking series as he had not played for a long time. But before the tournament it started to pain and he had to withdraw. He neither recovered, not able to train properly," he said.

Dahiya's injury paves way for Aman Sehrawat to take centrestage. Aman, who spars with Ravi, has impressed at the world level and gold at the Asian Championships showed that he is ready for the big stage.

It has also not helped matters that there was no national camp this year, save for a brief period before the Asian Championships. A national coach admitted that the trials have shown a bleak picture raising fitness concerns for lot of players.

"Aman looks to be in best shape among the lot. The lack of preparation in both men's and women's wrestling was evident during the trials. These seven months our preparation has suffered immensely. The wrestlers are not in good shape physically. Mentally, they are low on confidence," said the coach on condition of anonymity.

"Had there been national camp, we could have monitored their progress (injury). They all have personal physios we don't get any updates It's really a bad situation before Asian Games and world championships," he said.

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