Star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat took to the mat for the first time in 15 days on Monday to get ready for the Asian Games trials, even as IOA’s ad hoc panel got the ball rolling for resumption of activities by the dates to complete the Asian Championships (U17, 23) trials. Sparring was barred for these top wrestlers after they resumed their sit-in protest in Jantar Mantar demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom they have accused of sexually exploiting female wrestlers .
Bajrang and Vinesh have not competed in an international tournament since January and have not gone abroad to train, although the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had authorized their training and exposure at their request.
Until recently, they have been adamant that unless their demands are met, they will not train or compete in international tournaments. In the past two weeks, they only had two light training sessions on Jantar Mantar.
However, Vinesh had said on Sunday that they will resume training and will no longer shy away from tournaments.
In the hour-long session at a nearby stadium, Bajrang had Jitender Kinha as his sparring partner, while Vinesh trained with her cousin Sangeeta and Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik.
Satyawart Kadian trained along with his brother Sombir.
“The last time we did mat training was a day before the resumption of this protest. And you’ve seen how busy we’ve been over the last 15 days meeting supporters. Talks went on even late into the night, training was not possible. But now we are going to do mat training consistently,” said a wrestler who was part of the training session.
“We trained lightly today because we followed techniques. Gradually we will also start with strength and endurance training. We hope that there will be a good solution and by then we want to be ready for the trials of the Asian Games. We want to also to participate in the upcoming Ranking Series tournament,” he added.
However, the team for the UWW Ranking Series event, scheduled for June 1-4 in Bishkek, has already been determined. It is more or less the same team that had participated in the Asian Championships in Astana in April and won 14 medals.
Bajrang, Vinesh, Sakshi, Satyawart and Sangeeta were not part of the Indian team in Astana as they protested.
The IOA Ad Hoc Panel meets for the first time
The ad hoc panel, formed by the IOA to run the day-to-day activities of the WFI, met with coaches and SAI officials.
Ad hoc committee member, national coach Suma Shirur was not present at the meeting and another panelist Bhupendra Singh Bajwa discussed the roadmap with the coaches.
Taking into account the Asian Championships for under-17 and under-23 wrestlers to be held in Bishkek from June 10 to 18, the panel decided to hold trials at Indira Gandhi Stadium from May 17 to 19.
There was discussion about resuming national camps for senior wrestlers, but SAI will take a final call.
“There was no issue regarding the men’s national camp and a date will be finalized by the SAI soon, but the women wrestlers do not want to participate in the camp in Lucknow. They want the camp to be held in Delhi at the IG stadium. but housing is a problem there,” says an IOA source.
“The SAI officials are discussing it and will soon finalize the dates and location for the camp,” the sources added.
Farmers reach massive protest area
In the morning, farmers from Punjab and khap members from Haryana reached the protest site to show their support for the wrestlers. They even took down the barricades to enter the premises.
It looked more like a peasant protest than a wrestler’s movement. In the evening we saw workers welding the barricades to ensure that the farmers do not break the cordon, as they did on Monday morning.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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