Sajan Bhanwal became the first Indian to win back-to-back medals at the Junior World Wrestling Championship after he secured a silver in the 77kg Greco Roman category in Trnava, Slovakia.
The Indian grapplers returned empty-handed after the opening day's proceedings in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship came to an end as Sunil Kumar Rana and Gaurav Sharma lost their respective bronze medal bouts in the Greco-Roman category.
India's overall tally of 16 medals included eight -- one gold, three silver and four bronze -- won by men's freestyle wrestlers, four bronze by women and three silver and one bronze by Greco-Roman wrestlers.
The WFI remains suspended by the ministry and IOA has refused to re-introduce the ad-hoc panel, leaving the sport and the future of wrestlers in limbo.
Wrestling officially became part of the inaugural 2015 European Games on Tuesday despite being axed from the 2020 Olympic Games last month by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Wednesday, October 4.
Panghal's remarkable season has outshone even senior standout Vinesh Phogat, who shares the same weight category
The trials for the wrestling World Championships will be held on August 25-26 in Patiala, the ad-hoc panel announced on Monday, ending weeks of uncertainty around the selection competition.
Repechage gives losing wrestlers from the pre-quarterfinal round onwards a shot at the bronze medal if the winning grappler makes it to the title round.
The ad-hoc panel announced that it will host the senior national championships in Jaipur from February 2-5.
Gyanender narrowly missed out on a bronze medal play-off berth as Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers finished their campaign without a medal at the World Wrestling Championships in Paris, on Tuesday.
The path to the Olympics is paved with potholes for many athletes but few can claim to have overcome hardship like wrestler Vinod Kumar, who was thrown from a speeding train by a rival's family in India before landing on his feet in Australia.
Indian grapplers finished their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championship in Bangkok, Thailand with nine medals, including a gold, in the five-day event.
Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik on Thursday advised the country's wrestlers to participate in the Nationals conducted by the ad-hoc committee in Jaipur and not in the event organised by the suspended national federation.
The tournament will conclude on June 26.
The WFI, while announcing the trials on March 10-11, also included the names of Bajrang (65kg freestyle), Vinesh (55kg) and Sakshi (62kg), who had announced her retirement from the sport in "frustration" the day Sanjay Singh was elected president.
Here's a look at some Indian-origin athletes who will be representing their adopted countries at the Paris Games
Anshu Malik settled for a silver medal after losing her 57kg final to 2016 Olympic champion Helen Lousie Maroulis but Sarita Mor grabbed her maiden medal at the big stage by winning the 59kg bronze, in Oslo, Norway on Thursday.
A long sabbatical and a rejig in weight categories notwithstanding, Olympic heroes Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt reaffirmed their dominance on the world stage and ended a 28-year gold drought at the Asian Games in a successful 2014.
Of three grapplers in action, only Hardeep managed to win a bout when he downed Morocco's Choucri Atafi 8-4 in the 1/16 in the 97kg category. Later he lost his 1/8 bout 1-4 to Laokratis Kesidis from Greece.
With the Tokyo Olympics set to start on July 23, here is some trivia from the first two editions of the modern Olympics held in 1896 and 1900.
India will go unrepresented in five categories at the upcoming Zagreb Open in Croatia as Bajrang Punia, Antim Panghal and three others didn't give consent for their selection to the ad-hoc panel that announced a 13-member team on Tuesday.
The IOA-constituted ad-hoc committee for wrestling has decided not to alter the criteria for the upcoming trials to select the team for the next month's World Championships in Belgrade.
The World Championship trials are expected to be held by August 10, giving the wrestlers, who competed in Asian Games selection competition, just about 17 days to be ready for another gruelling contest.
Bajwa, when asked whether Indian grapplers will compete under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag at the Paris Olympics since the Wrestling Federation of India has been banned by the international body, told PTI that, since the Olympics and Asian Games are multi-discipline events, "they will compete as part of the Indian contingent".
Taking a tough stand against suspected dope offenders, the Wrestling Federation of India has withdrawn the names of at least six medal winners at the just concluded Junior National Wrestling Championship after they failed to provide samples for tests.
He began with a 6-0 win over Estonia's Robin Uspenski and followed that up with a 18-9 victory over Kyrgyzstan's Zhenish Humnabekov, who got three cautions in the quarter-final bout.
Anil Kumar also faced a similar fate during the quarter-finals of 85kg, going down to Japan's Atsushi Matsumoto 0-7, but was fortunate to enter the bronze medal round after the Japanese grappler ensured a place in the gold medal round.
The WFI ad-hoc panel on Tuesday handed Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat direct entries into the Asian Games.
Wrestlers sound alarm over training disruption, urge SAI to reopen centres
WFI President Sanjay Singh on Friday assured that the protesting wrestlers' trio of Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik would not face any discrimination and he would personally approach them for appearance in the Olympic Qualifiers trials, which will be held in Maharashtra.
In the 57kg competition, much was expected from talented Anshu Malik but the 2021 world championship silver medallist struggled to score against Nanjo, the reigning U23 world champion.
The last time Indian women returned without a single medal was in 2016 edition in Macon, France.
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.
Harpreet bagged his second successive bronze medal at the Asian Championship after defeating Junjie Na of China 3-2.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will go ahead with the trials in the men's freestyle 74kg category despite a postponement request from the injured Sushil Kumar. Sushil, who has been struggling to revive his career, has pulled out of Friday's trials citing a hand injury and had requested trials in his category to be postponed.
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.
Protesting wrestlers joined several of their colleagues to prepare for the Asian Games trials.
'It's not my choice to be back home. They approved everything before I left as I filled out the forms. I received my March salary and it was only half. When I inquired, they said they are holding my pay'
The WFI had also applied for visas for nine of its coaches but only six received visas.
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