It’s time Sushil realises his body has aged

Jakarta: Ageing and injured two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar may have contested in his final major competition at the Asian Games here, but the way the wily freestyle wrestler lost his first round bout against Adam Batirov of Bahrain it was clear he had reached the end of his career no matter what his coach and father-in-law Satpal lined-up for him.

Sushil, who has never managed to win gold at Asian Games, had been out of action for quite some time, but still the national federation picked him for this all-important quadrennial Games instead of giving an opportunity to a youngster.

Sushil’s southbound rankings worsened the matters after the draw was made and he was drawn to play against Bahrain’s Adam Batirov.
On Sunday Sushil looked a pale shadow of himself when he got ready for his first bout in Jakarta.

He was sluggish and off-colour right from the start before losing 3-5 and his hopes of Batirov making it to the final were dashed when the Bahrain wrestler lost to Japan’s Yuhi Fujinami 2-8 that was the end of London Olympics silver medallist.