FILA's decision will disturb Indian wrestlers: Satpal

NEW DELHI: The International wrestling federation's (FILA) decision to tweak the weight categories and rules for the Rio Olympics has spread a feeling of bias among India's wrestling fraternity.
Sushil's coach and father-in-law Satpal believes the decision is aimed at disturbing Indian wrestlers. Satpal quoted Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion Kurt Angle to describe India's performance on international stage.
"Everyone is scared of Sushil Kumar. Till 1996, we used to be happy to draw with an Indian but now their presence in the draw worries the grapplers from other countries," he quoted Kurt Angel as saying on his visit to the capital last week.
"They never prefer India doing well at the big stage. We did well in hockey so they introduced turf then changed the colour to bring in more disturbance. Similarly, FILA's decision will disturb the training programme of our wrestlers," he added.
Explaining the dilemma that the grapplers face, Satpal said they will have to start afresh to get accustomed to the situations.
"Our wrestlers have accumulated enough experience in their weight categories. In the new category they will have less experience. They will not know how much energy to put in a particular bout and if they exhaust their energy level too early then how will they perform in the next fight? They will take some time to settle down," he warned.