WFI to have different teams for Asiad, World C’ships
The Wrestling Federation of India has decided to have two different teams for the Asian Games and the World Championships this year as the schedules of these two major events will clash.
The Asian Games at Hangzhou are scheduled from September 23 to October 8 while the World Wrestling Championships at Belgrade will be held from September 16 to 24. The dates for the Worlds may be changed as the game’s governing body United World Wrestling is keeping an eye on a change in the Asian Games schedule if any.
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The WFI decided to go with different teams after a few wrestlers said they wanted to participate only in the world championships, which is also the qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, if the dates of the two events clash.
“There would be one trial at a time at two different camps of men and women, but we will pick two different teams. We have enough bench strength for the two teams and even for Greco Roman we will have separate teams,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said.
“Our main focus is on the World Championships as well as the Asian Games. While one is the qualifying (event) for the next Olympics, the Asian Games will help us stamp our supremacy on the sport. At the 2018 Games in Jakarta, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat won gold medals, whereas Divya Kakran had a bronze.”
Tomar also said that there are plenty of options for the WFI to pick wrestlers for the two events. “We have many wrestlers in the 57 kg category as well as in the 65 kg. In the past few years, the standard of Indian wrestlers has gone up,” he said.
"Both men and women wrestlers had success in international events and now there is no concept of a B team in Indian wrestling,” he added.
The national camp for women is scheduled to start on January 16, at the Sports Authority of India’s centre in Lucknow. It will have many new things in terms of discipline for the wrestlers. “There are a lot of changes in terms of discipline,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Chief coach of the women’s team Jitendra Yadav sounded upbeat about the past performances of the women wrestlers and their plans. “Women wrestlers won 29 medals, including Vinesh Phogat’s bronze medal at the World Championships, last year and we are hopeful of increasing that number,” said Yadav.
In 2022, India started with eight medals, including one gold, four silver, and three bronzes at the International Wrestling Tournament at Bulgaria in February, and finished off their international season with a bronze for Vinesh at the Senior World Championships at Serbia in September after finishing with two gold, one silver and three bronze at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Besides the Asian Games and the World Championships, the Indian wrestlers would aim for success on home turf when New Delhi hosts the Asian Championships from March 28 to April 2.
“We are going to start the season with the Zagreb Open Ranking Series in Croatia from February 1 to 5, followed by other ranking series in Egypt from February 23 to 26,” Yadav said.
From Monday, 10 wrestlers would join the camp for the first ranking series in February. They are: Shivani Panwar (50kg), Sushma Shokeen (53kg), Anju (55kg), Mansi (57kg), Sarita (59kg), Sangeeta (62kg), Bhateri (65kg), Radhika (68kg), Ritika (72kg) and Kiran (76kg).
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