Star grappler Yogeshwar Dutt today heaved a sigh of relief after clinching a spot for the World Championships by beating Amit Kumar Dhankhar, who had gone to court last year against the Olympic medallist alleging favouritism.
Dhankhar had sought court's direction on the method of picking wrestlers for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He had asked the court to issue directions for holding trials in the 65kg freestyle category fairly and to recommend the name of the best wrestler in that division to represent India in the Games.
Yogeshwar today defeated Dhankhar 6-3 in the final of 65kg selection trails, to make it to the September 7-12 World Championships in Las Vegas, which will also be the first qualification tournament for next year's Rio Olympics.
"Yes, there was slight pressure on me to beat him. Although I was pretty confident of defeating him but in case, I was unlucky today, people would have got a chance to point fingers at me," Yogeshwar told reporters.
"There would also have been criticism against the WFI, who had chosen the team last time for the Commonwealth and Asian Games. People would have said that the Federation's chosen team was not right. So today I proved that the team picked last year was the most deserving," he said.
At the last edition of the Olympics in London, Yogeshwar won a bronze in 60kg category before he was forced to climb up to 65kg after the FILA, the governing body for international wrestling, re-jigged Olympic weight categories.
Amit, on the other hand, had always fought in this category.
