Sports
Relief to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, HC dismisses application filed against exemption in trial
The Delhi High Court on Saturday declined to interfere with the exemption granted to top wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia from the Asian Games trials. Justice Subramaniam Prasad dismissed the pleas of U-20 world champion Anand Panghal and U-23 Asian champion Sujit Kalkal against allowing direct entry to Phogat and Punia to participate in the tournament. “The writ petition is dismissed,” the judge said.
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Phogat (53kg) and Punia (65kg) were on Tuesday given direct entry to the Asian Games by the Indian Olympic Association’s ad-hoc committee, while other wrestlers will have to earn their places in the Indian team through selection trials on July 22 and 23. Panghal and Kalkal moved the High Court on July 19 challenging the exemption and sought a fair selection process for the quadrangular showpiece event. The plea, filed by advocates Hrishikesh Baruah and Akshay Kumar, had sought that the direction issued by the IOA ad-hoc committee in respect of the two categories (men’s freestyle 65kg and women’s 53kg) be set aside and the exemption granted to Phogat and Punia be cancelled.
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Senior Asian Championship silver medalist Panghal said in a video, “Vinesh Phogat will get a direct entry in the Asian Games even though she did not even practice for the last one year.” He has no achievement in the last one year. She said, “Last year in the Junior World Championship, I won the gold medal and became the first Indian woman wrestler to do so. In the Asian Championship 2023, I won a silver medal while Vinesh did nothing. She was also injured.” India’s star wrestler Sakshi Malik also said that I got a call from the government that they are directly sending the names of both of them (Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat) for the Asian Games and asked me to send a mail so that my name can also be sent. Sakshi Malik said that I refused because I did not want direct entry. I have never gone to any tournament without trials and will never do so in future.
