Top Indian wrestlers will not participate in international tournaments, have decided to withdraw from the competition
New Delhi. Top Indian wrestlers have continued to pull out of major tournaments with the likes of Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia pulling out of the second ranking series Ibrahim-Mustafa tournament. This is the second time in a month that Vinesh, Bajrang, Ravi Dahiya, Deepak Punia, Anshu Malik, Sangeeta Phogat and Sangeeta Mor have decided not to take part in an international tournament. The tournament is to be held in Alexandria, Egypt from 23 to 26 February. These top wrestlers had earlier pulled out of the Zagreb Open saying they were not ready to compete.
The monitoring committee, headed by veteran woman boxer MC Mary Kom, looking after the affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has approved a contingent of 27 Indian wrestlers for this tournament. The tournament will be crucial with a view to gain ranking points for better seeding in the Senior Asian Championships 2023 and Senior World Championships 2023. Nine freestyle wrestlers, eight female wrestlers and 10 Greco-Roman wrestlers have found place in the Indian team. Apart from this, 16 coaches and support staff are part of the team. Anshu (67kg, Greco-Roman), Bhateri (65kg, women) and Sujeet (65kg, freestyle), three of the 27 wrestlers who have made it to the team, are in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
“We want to ensure that the sport and sportspersons do not suffer and that more and more wrestlers get international exposure to compete against the best in the world,” Mary Kom said in a statement. Nine current and former gold medalists from the championship have registered for the second ranking series. During a three-day dharna at Jantar Mantar in January, wrestlers had said they would not participate in any national or international tournament until the WFI was dissolved and its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was sacked.
Team Greco Roman: Manjeet (55kg), Vikram Kurade (60kg), Karanjeet (67kg), Nitin (63kg), Anshu (67kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg), Sajan (77kg) ), Rohit Dahiya (82kg), Narinder Cheema (97kg), Naveen (130kg). Women: Women: Sushma Shokeen (55kg), Seeto (57kg), Simran (59kg), Sumitra (62kg), Bhateri (65kg), Radhika (68kg), Ritika (72kg) and Kiran (76kg) kg). Freestyle: Udit (57kg), Pankaj (61kg), Sujit (65kg), Sagar Jaglan (74kg), Pradeep (79kg), Jonty Kumar (86kg), Prithviraj Patil (92kg), Sahil (97kg) kg) and Dinesh (125 kg).
