New Delhi: Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s participation in the Rio Olympics was in jeopardy yesterday with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealing in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against the clean chit given to him.
“Yes, WADA has appealed the verdict on Narsingh to CAS, which will hear both parties on Thursday August 18,” Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Indian wrestling’s governing body president, told IANS. Narsingh is scheduled to open his Rio campaign in the 74 kilogram freestyle category on Friday, August 19, a day after the hearing is scheduled to take place.
“Our lawyer has already acknowledged the WADA letter. We will put a strong defence for Narsingh. He has a good chance of getting cleared,” Brij Bhushan added. Narsingh, who bagged the quota with a bronze medal finish in last year’s World Championships, first returned positive for a banned steroid following a dope test on June 25 by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). But NADA exonerated him of all the doping charges on August 1, after postponing the verdict twice in July, saying he “was a victim of sabotage done by a competitor”.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) also communicated to the world’s apex wrestling body, the United World Wrestling (UWW) on August 1 that NADA has cleared Narsingh of all the doping-related charges and the 26-year-old would be re-included in the team for the 74kg competition.
UWW gave the green light to Narsingh for participation on August 3. However, Narsingh’s route had to clear the final WADA hurdle to compete, which reviewed the NADA panel verdict and challenged it at CAS for further deliberation. Narsingh earlier overcame protracted legal hurdles to participate in Rio after getting dragged into a bitter courtroom tussle by two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar over representing the country in the 74kg freestyle category.
Narsingh was preferred over Sushil by WFI to take part in the Games, that fuelled a major legal battle between the two grapplers. Sushil missed the qualification for Rio due to injury, and Narsingh secured the berth to represent the country. After repeatedly requesting WFI to hold trials anew, Sushil moved the court.
But the Delhi High Court on June 6 dismissed his plea, clearing Narsingh’s path. After NADA’s clearance, Sushil conveyed his best wishes to the Mumbai wrestler for success at Rio.

Srikanth faces twice Olympic champ Lin Dan in quarters
India’s shuttler Kidambi Srikanth will face an enormous task of beating two-time Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion Lin Dan of China in the quarter-finals.  World No.11 Srikanth stunned World No.5 Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19 in 42 minutes at the pre-quarters stage. And the stakes will be high as Srikanth will aim to prove that he has really come of age. At Rio, Srikanth has joined Parupalli Kashyap, who was the first Indian men’s singles player to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics at the London Games in 2012.
World No.3 Dan is considered as the most successful shuttler in history. The 32-year-old Chinese has completed the “Super Grand Slam”, having won all nine major titles in the badminton world: Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Thomas Cup, Sudirman Cup, Super Series Masters Finals, All England Open, Asian Games, and Asian Championships -- becoming the first and only player to achieve this feat. Meanwhile, wrestler Hardeep Singh crashed out of the men’s Greco-Roman 98 kg 1/8 Final after losing to Turkey’s Cenk Ildem 1-2 on points at the Rio Olympics yesterday. Hardeep’s elimination has brought down the curtains on India’s campaign in the Greco-Roman category after Ravinder Khatri lost to Hungary’s Viktor Lorincz by technical superiority in 85kg on Monday.