The reigning U23 Asian champion Sujeet Kalkal slammed the IOA ad-hoc committee for granting direct entry to Bajrang Punia for the Asian Games.
Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat should be withdrawn from India's Asian Games squad if they lose the upcoming trials for the World Championships.
The 34-year-old two-time Olympic medallist proved that class is permanent, and that the youngsters still have a long way to go, at least in his weight category -- the men's 74kg freestyle.
The IOA appointed ad-hoc committee has decided to conduct the Asian Games wrestling trials behind closed doors after parents of some of the wrestlers got into a heated argument with panel members at the IG Stadium on Friday.
Punia had trained in Russia to prepare for the trials, which are being organised by the IOA ad-hoc panel.
India are grappling with a dilemma over who to select between the logical candidate or a sentimental favourite as the country's representative in men's 74kg freestyle wrestling at the Rio Olympics. Since winning India's quota place by capturing a bronze medal at last year's World Championship in Las Vegas, Narsingh Yadav had more or less taken his ticket to Brazil for granted. With the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) also backing the 26-year-old, it seemed his place was certain until double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar approached the Delhi High Court on Monday demanding a match between the pair to determine who should compete in Rio. "As asked by the court, we heard Sushil and noted his point. We'd submit our observations and will wait for the court's instruction," WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar told Reuters on Thursday.
Two Mongolian coaches stripped off and hurled their shoes in protest on Sunday after their wrestler Mandakhnaran Ganzorig was denied victory for running away from his Uzbek opponent in the dying seconds of their bronze medal contest.
Divya Kakran shrugged off a crushing quarter-final defeat to bag the bronze, ensuring that medals continued to come from the wrestling arena even as three other Indians crashed out early at the Asian Games.
Protesting wrestlers joined several of their colleagues to prepare for the Asian Games trials.
Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav has no further hurdle in his path for his 74kg freestyle bout on August 19 as his coach said he would not have to appear for any reinstatement test.
Neeraj Chopra's soaring javelin did not just earn India their first Olympic gold in athletics on Saturday, it also meant that the contingent will return from Tokyo with seven medals, their biggest Games haul ever.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar spearheaded a sparkling show as Indian grapplers dominated the wrestling arena with three gold medals after the shooters ended their campaign on a rousing note with five more podium finishes on sixth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Tuesday.
Veteran Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat expressed her desire to make a comeback and represent the country at the Tokyo Olympic Games next year. Geeta, who gave birth to her son in December, said the postponement of the Tokyo Games due to the coronavirus pandemic came as a blessing in disguise for her and will give more time to prepare for the mega-event.
Indian grapplers finished their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championship in Bangkok, Thailand with nine medals, including a gold, in the five-day event.
Deepak usually stuns his rivals with his speed and agility but Dauletbekov was up for the task and smartly foiled the Indian's leg attacks by maintaining distance.
India's impressive show at the World Wrestling Championships continued as Bajrang bagged a bronze medal in the 60kg freestyle category with an overwhelming 9-2 win over Mangolia's Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan, in Budapest on Tuesday.
The Indian wrestling contingent were hit with a doping scandal ahead of the 2016 Rio Games, which resulted in freestyle medal contender Narsingh Pancham Yadav being disqualified just days before his scheduled opening bout.
While Tomar informed only about Pakistan's participation, the PTI has learnt that clearance has been put on hold also for wrestlers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia on Thursday indicated he might withdraw from the Asian Games if all the panchayats that backed him during the protest at Jantar Mantar ask him to do so.
A summary of the country's athletes' showing at the Tokyo Games on Thursday.
2018 was largely forgettable for Sushil Kumar -- India's only double Olympic-medallist -- and Sakshi Malik -- the country's first and only woman wrestler to win a medal at the biggest stage.
IOA ad-hoc committee panel members Ashok Garg and Gian Singh favoured a two-stage trial to pick the Indian wrestling squad for the Asian Games and did not recommend exemption to any wrestler, it has come to light.
Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and Asian Games champion Vinesh Phogat won a bronze each as India's women ended their campaign without a gold medal in the Asian Wrestling Championships, in Xi'an, on Friday.
'Sakshi's medal will do to women's wrestling what Sushil's 2008 Olympic medal did to wrestling in general.' 'It will make more and more families put their daughters into wrestling.' 'More and more young girls will fall in love with the sport and demand that they be taken to akhadas.'
Indian wrestlers reaped a rich harvest of five medals in the men's freestyle events but a gold medal eluded them on the second day of the Asian Championships, in Xi'an, China, on Wednesday
Vanesa, the reigning European champion, executed her strategy perfectly as Vinesh could not find a way to wriggle out of Vanesa's headlocks.
With Sushil Kumar's chances of participating in the second season of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) next to nil, another star India wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt is also likely to opt out of the upcoming event taking the sheen away from the tournament.
Vinesh Phogat, who lost in the quarter-finals of the women's 53-kg freestyle event at the Tokyo Olympics, penned a letter about emotional breakdowns, mental well-being and how being denied her physio affected her performance at the Games.
Wrestlers have the opportunity to win more quota places at the Asian qualifiers and World Qualifiers this year.
A look at India's schedule at the Tokyo Olympics on August 6, 2021.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Wednesday, October 4.
If a keen tussle for a ticket to Rio Games between double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and rising star Narsingh Yadav grabbed headlines off the mat, the youngsters showed the sport's bench strength in a country that gave the world the much-touted Pro Wrestling League this year.
With Narsingh's participation in serious doubt, Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com spoke exclusively to Sushil Kumar's coach Satpal Singh.
Either Sanjay Kumar Singh or 2010 CWG champion Anita Sheoran will become the next WFI President.
The year 2023 will go down as extremely memorable for the Indian sports fraternity as players across various disciplines came together to script history at the Asian Games held in Hangzhou.
Grappler Sandeep Tulsi Yadav created history by winning India's first-ever medal in the Greco-Roman category of the Senior World Wrestling Championships after beating Serbia's Aleksandar Maksimovic in the 66kg division in Budapest on Sunday.
Here are some of the controversies, which cast a shadow on Indian sport as the athletes prepared for the Asian Games.
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