‘My participation in Rio Olympics is upto the federation now’

Mumbai: Putting the onus squarely on the wrestling authorities whether he or star grappler Sushil Kumar should fly to the Rio Olympics after winning a quota place at the recent World Championships, Narsingh Yadav on Wednesday said he was very keen to win the bronze medal in Las Vegas.

"I was very keen to win a medal in the World Championships (in USA). Now it's upto the federation (WFI) to decide whether I should be sent to the Rio Olympics. But thus far in history only the person who had clinched the quota berth has been sent," said the 26-year-old Yadav, who bagged the bronze in the Vegas Worlds in spectacular style, here.

Read: Narsingh Pancham Yadav books an Olympic quota place at World Championship

A raging debate has started whether Yadav, a Deputy Superintendent in the Maharashtra Police and supported by JSW, or two-time Olympic medalist (bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012), Sushil, should represent the country in the 74kg category at next year's Rio Games after the former's brilliant come-from-behind win in the USA to nail the quota berth in this weight class for the country.

Yadav was trailing France's Chechen-born Zelimkhan Khaddjiev 4-12 with less than a minute to go in their bronze play-off when he stunned his opponent by holding his head and flipping Khadjiev over his shoulder like a rag doll on his back before pinning him down for a victory by fall.

Recalling the bout, after watching the replay of the end moments on a giant screen behind him with the reporters, Yadav said that it was his only chance to clinch the bout and the medal after trailing by such a big margin.

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"I led 4-0 initially, but then was down 4-12 and knew that my only chance was to win by a fall. I had used this technique in 2013 at the Colorado Springs (in USA where this time too the grapplers trained for the World Championships) to win a bout. It's called 'dhak' in mud wrestling and I have done mud wrestling in my formative years," said Yadav.

"It wasn't the ideal situation to be in. I controlled the pace and picked up points in the first round. In the second my opponent put me under pressure to pick up points quickly, but I was confident of my own skills and just went for the 'dhak'. I am happy to win the medal after such a dramatic match," he said.