Wrestler Sushil Kumar withdraws from Asian Championships: Report

NEW DELHI: Double-Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar has reportedly withdrawn his name from the Indian squad that was to travel Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for the 2018 Asian Wrestling Championships.
According to a report in The Tribune, Sushil has cited a knee injury for his decision in a letter to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The 34-year-old picked up the knee injury during the trials for the Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games last year where he beat Praveen Rana.He feels participating in the event might worsen his knee and he wants to focus on the upcoming Commonwealth Games in April.
Parveen's name has been put forward by WFI as Sushil's replacement for the Asian championships.
The bout in December ended on a controversial note as a brawl broke out between the supporters of the two wrestlers. Parveen had alleged the former world champion personally instigated his supporters to attack him after the selection trials in the national capital.
Rana also claimed to have received threats before the national wrestling championships alleging that the walkover he gave to Sushil was because he was struggling with an injury. A day after the scuffle between the camps of the wrestlers, an FIR was filed against Sushil under sections 323 [voluntarily causing hurt] and 341 [wrongful restraint] of the IPC.
On the other hand, Sushil claimed that he was bitten by Rana during the bout. "...he bit me but no problem, it might be his tactics to stop me from performing well. All this is a part of sports," Sushil told reporters after the bouts," he said.