Asian Games wrestling entry deadline extension not beyond July 22, OCA tells IOA

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has refused to extend beyond a week from the July 15 deadline for sending final entries of the wrestling squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games. The response came after top IOA officials reached out to OCA for a second time on Tuesday seeking exemption until August 5.

IOA president PT Usha, joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey and senior vice-president Ajay Patel met OCA officials on Saturday on the sidelines of its general assembly meeting in Bangkok. They were told they can send the wrestling entry till July 22. It is learnt that on Tuesday, India was firmly told by OCA that it was not possible to provide more time.

It means that the already delayed wrestling selection trials have to be held by July 22. The IOA ad-hoc panel on Tuesday discussed the modalities to finalise a date and criteria for the trials. Six top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and world championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, had sought time from the union sports ministry to prepare for the trials (Asian Games and world championships), requesting that it be held after August 10.

The trials for the world championships, scheduled in Belgrade from September 16, can be held in August. It is a qualification tournament for the Paris Olympics.

Wrestling coach Gyan Singh, who is part of the ad hoc committee, said trials will be too early for the six if held this month. “They will not be able to compete in trials this month. They are very clear that they need time to prepare for the competition," he said. "We have been telling the IOA ad hoc committee to first finalise a date for the trials because time was running out. It was completely in the hands of OCA to give exemption.”

Punia is currently in Kyrgyzstan while Vinesh Phogat is also overseas getting ready to compete in the ranking tournament in Budapest this month. Sangeet Phogat and Jitender are also travelling as sparring partners.

Several proposals have been discussed with technical committee members of IOA ad hoc committee and national coaches with respect to trials. One of the proposals was to have the selection trials and pick the best four wrestlers in six weight categories where the protesting wrestlers wanted to compete. A second selection trial can be then held in August first week with the likes of Vinesh (53kg), Bajrang (65kg), Sakshi (62kg), Sangeeta Phogat (57kg) and Jitender Kumar (86kg) thrown in the mix. The wrestlers had drawn a lot of criticism as it came out that the IOA ad hoc committee can have a one-bout final trial for them. It was felt that this formula would have given time to the selected final four while ensuring that a wrestler has to compete in more than one bout for the final selection.

However, with the OCA not stretching the deadline beyond July 22, IOA has to send the squad on the basis of one selection trial.

National coaches had also raised objections to only six wrestlers being given an exemption and wanted the likes of Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya, World championships medallist Anshu Malik, Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia to be given the same treatment.

"The trials for the Asian Games have been delayed so much. By this time we should have started preparation at the national camp. We have been getting so many calls from wrestlers, their coaches and their parents because of this uncertainty," said a coach on condition of anonymity.

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