Tension in the air ahead of wrestling trials

Agitated parents, coaches and family members of some wrestlers confronted the ad-hoc committee members at the venue of the Asian Games selection trials on Friday over the exemption given to Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Vinesh Phogat (53kg), leading to a spat. The showdown lasted for some time before ad-hoc committee members calmed the frayed tempers.

Around 60 people first made their way to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) headquarters and raised slogans against the ad-hoc committee. They demanded to meet IOA president PT Usha and acting CEO Kalyan Chaubey who were not present in office. The crowd then went to the IG Stadium where preparations were on for the trials. Antim Panghal and Sujeet Kalkal, who is in Bajrang's weight class, have moved Delhi High Court that has heard the matter for the last days and will pronounce its judgement on Saturday.

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It is in such a tense atmosphere that selection trials will be conducted over the next two days in 18 weight categories. The team entry has to be sent to the Olympic Council of Asia by July 23.

Coaches Gian Singh Sherawat and Ashok Garg, who are part of the WFI ad-hoc committee, spoke to the parents and coach of junior world champion Antim Panghal, who will be taking the trials in Vinesh Phogat's weight category. London Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt was also present.

"The crowd came to the venue. One person started misbehaving and arguing with me. I told them I have no issue in talking to the parents separately but this was no way," said Gian Singh, a three-time Olympian and former national coach.

"Yogeshwar had asked me to meet the parents, so I had agreed. I explained the situation and told them that it was a decision taken by the committee and that no wrestler will go to Asian Games without proving themselves on the mat. There is a world championships trials in August," said Singh.

Antim's father, Ramniwas Panghal, said their demand was that whoever wins in the two weight categories, their names should be sent as the first-choice wrestlers. "Send the winners of 53kg (women) and 65 kg (men) as part of the team. You can keep others in standby, we have no issues with that. We were told that another trial will take place and even a one-bout trial to pick the final name has not been ruled out," he said.

"We have told Antim to focus on the trials and all this should not affect his confidence mentally," he said.

The point of contention is a WFI regulation for selection trials for the Asian Games, put up on their website, that allows exemption to "world championships/Olympic medallists" on the advice of "national coaches/foreign experts."

Though WFI claims it changed its selection policy (from 2017) last year but under president Brij Bushan Sharan Singh WFI's selection remained an arbitrary process. No set rules were followed.

Even last year, Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya were handed automatic selection for the world championships based on their gold medal winning performance at the Commonwealth Games. However, the same was not applied in women's wrestling. CWG gold medallists Vinesh Phogat (53kg), and Sakshi Malik (62kg) were not given any exemption.

WFI elections on Aug 12

The WFI elections have been rescheduled to August 12, according to a fresh notification issued by returning officer Justice (retd) MM Kumar. The process will continue from where it was left on July 25 -- the last date of receiving the names for electoral college. The polls, earlier scheduled on July 11, were stayed by the Gauhati High Court before the Supreme Court vacated the stay. The returning officer has also settled five disputes in states units. Both factions from Maharashtra were held ineligible to nominate members to the electoral college.

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