Taking a tough stand against suspected dope offenders, the Wrestling Federation of India has withdrawn the names of at least six medal winners at the just concluded Junior National Wrestling Championship after they failed to provide samples for tests.
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.
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.
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.
Harpreet bagged his second successive bronze medal at the Asian Championship after defeating Junjie Na of China 3-2.
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.
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.
The last time Indian women returned without a single medal was in 2016 edition in Macon, France.
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.
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.
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.
'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'
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.
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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.
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".
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 WFI ad-hoc panel on Tuesday handed Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat direct entries into the Asian Games.
Gehlot lost 0-2 to Okuno in the summit clash to emulate Ravinder (61kg), who also won a silver earlier this week.
The WFI had also applied for visas for nine of its coaches but only six received visas.
Here's a look at some Indian-origin athletes who will be representing their adopted countries at the Paris Games
A torchbearer died of a heart attack after carrying the Olympic flame as part of Russia's torch relay leading up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in February, an official said on Monday. Vadim Gorbenko, 73, a sports school director and Greco-Roman wrestling coach, felt ill after walking 150 metres (500 feet) with the torch in his home city of Kurgan in western Siberia, said Roman Osin, spokesman for the Sochi 2014 torch relay.
Protesting wrestlers joined several of their colleagues to prepare for the Asian Games trials.
Sports Minister Jitendra Singh was far from impressed as he took stock of India's preparations for next year's Commonwealth and Asian Games in a meeting with SAI officials here and expressed dissatisfaction with the progress made so far.
Indian wrestling is well and truly on an all-time high as the country, in what turned out to be a double delight, on Friday earned a maiden World Cup berth on the back of its best-ever sixth-place finish in men's free-style at the World Championships in Budapest.
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.
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.
Star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat's request to train in Kyrgyzstan and Poland respectively was approved by TOPS.
Dismissing the allegation that he has threatened the sexually harassed wrestlers and their families on behalf of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, coach Mahavir Prasad Bishnoi said he is ready to be hanged if proved guilty.
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 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.
Sushma Shokeen also earned a podium finish at the Asian Wrestling Championship here on Thursday
Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat should be withdrawn from India's Asian Games squad if they lose the upcoming trials for the World Championships.
Either Sanjay Kumar Singh or 2010 CWG champion Anita Sheoran will become the next WFI President.
Swedish greco-roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian has been stripped of his 84kg-category bronze medal after he threw it down in protest at the refereeing, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday. During the wrestling medal ceremony, Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck after beating Melonin Noumonvi of France, stepped from the podium, dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat and then walked off.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
Wrestling's international governing body, FILA has announced a rejig in weight classes for its competitions, including those of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, a development which would lead to India's medallists Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt moving up to a higher weight category.
