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New Delhi, July 27: Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has announced the replacement of Narsingh Yadav for the forthcoming Olympics in Rio. The wrestling body has selected Praveen Rana to be part of the Indian contingent. The decision was taken late on Tuesday.
Rana is an accomplished mat wrestler, having won the gold medal at Dave Schultz Memorial tournament in United States, conducted in May 2014. However, critics claim that he cannot match the acumen of Narsingh Yadav, who was originally selected by WFI, rubbing shoulders with two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar.
Narsingh is virtually disqualified from participating in the Rio Olympics as he tested positive in the doping test conducted National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) three days ago. The 26-year-old wrestler has cried conspiracy and claimed innocence. His colleagues at Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Sonepat have backed the claims of Narsingh, saying that someone had adulterated the food served to him.
The stand of Narsingh was validated to an extent after his roommate Sandeep Tulasi Yadav was also found positive, having consumed the same banned substance which was found in the blood samples of Narsingh.
WFI has backed Narsingh, with president Brij Bhushan expressing confidence that the young wrestler would be found innocent after the investigation gets over. “Narsingh has appeared in many national and international tournaments. He has never backed down from the doping tests. We have to back our wrestler. He may quite probably be fixed by someone else,” he said.
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