Wrestlers News: Differences in Ad-hoc Committee; Coach accuses president of taking arbitrary decisions, no decision on wrestling trial

The Indian Olympic Association (IOC) ad-hoc panel, which met here on Tuesday, could not fix a date for conducting wrestling trials for the Asian Games and World Championships. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is yet to respond to its request to extend the July 15 deadline. The IOA has to give the names of all Indian players participating in the Asian Games by July 15. A request has been made to extend this deadline to August 10 so that the protesting wrestlers get time. Meanwhile, there have been indications of differences in the ad-hoc committee. Wrestling coach and committee member Gyan Singh has accused the chairman of the committee, Bhupinder Singh Bajwa, of taking arbitrary decisions.

Six wrestlers, including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh Phogat, have sought additional time from the Sports Ministry to prepare for the Asian Games trials. The ad-hoc committee has given him exemption from the Asian Games and the World Champion Trials and now he will have to play only one match. There has been a lot of criticism of this decision.

Will the deadline be extended?

Committee chairman Bhupinder Singh Bajwa said, “Wait for a day or two. We expect the OCA’s reply to come in a day or two. We haven’t got any signal yet, but we are hopeful of getting good news by Thursday.” Wrestling coach and committee member Gyan Singh said, “Not confirmed yet, but we think the deadline will get extended. There was a meeting today but no decision was taken. Now there will be another meeting on July 6. Trials cannot be conducted in such a short time. I am sure the deadline will be extended further.

old wfi setup only working

Indicating differences in the ad-hoc committee, he said Bajwa wanted to take all the decisions himself and the old WFI setup seemed to be working. He said, “Bajwa does not talk to us much. I come to the meeting because I don’t want wrestlers to suffer.” Singh also said that he thought of resigning, but remained in the committee for wrestlers. He said, “I have not seen Suma Shirur in a single meeting since I was elected to the committee. Why is he on the committee? I have heard that she is doing coaching in Bhopal. I saw him at the trial in Sonepat, but haven’t seen him since he came into the committee. Shirur is the national rifle shooting coach.