A record contingent of 121 athletes, including 54 women, will represent India at the Rio Olympics.
The four-day selection trials began on Wednesday at NIS Patiala and SAI Regional Centre in Sonepat under the chairmanship of ad hoc panel member Bhupinder Singh Bajwa.
The ad-hoc committee member added that the wrestlers' demand to hold the Worlds trials on or after August 20, as they need time to recover from the Asian Games trials, was "not feasible".
Yogeshwar questions 'unfair' trial exemption given to 6 wrestlers by IOA ad-hoc panel
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 suspended WFI, despite being warned of legal action by the Sports Ministry for organising the 'nationals', went ahead with the tournament in Pune from January 29-31.
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.
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).
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.
Antim Panghal once again confirmed her emergence as one of the top wrestlers in the country by winning the World Championships trials in Patiala on Friday.
Cuban wrestling great Mijain Lopez became the first Olympian to win five golds in the same individual event on Tuesday.
Celebrated Indian grappler Yogeshwar Dutt neither praised nor criticised the new selection policy of the IOA-constituted ad-hoc panel for wrestling, which states that Olympic quota winners will have to compete against a challenger to book a ticket to the Paris Games.
The IOA ad-hoc committee on Wednesday decided to hold much-awaited Asian Games wrestling trials on July 22-23.
Hundreds of junior wrestlers assembled at Jantar Mantar for a symbolic three-hour protest against Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat.
National coaches tell IOA ad-hoc panel trial exemption decision has irked wrestling community
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.
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 Wrestling Federation of India conveyed to the world governing body UWW that the sports ministry is interfering with its autonomy.
Aman, who is Asian Games bronze medallist and Asian Championships title winner, is confident that he will be in reckoning for a medal at the Games.
Indian grapplers finished their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championship in Bangkok, Thailand with nine medals, including a gold, in the five-day event.
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.
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Wednesday, October 4.
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.
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.
Panghal's remarkable season has outshone even senior standout Vinesh Phogat, who shares the same weight category
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.
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.
The tournament will conclude on June 26.
The ad-hoc panel announced that it will host the senior national championships in Jaipur from February 2-5.
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.
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.
Harpreet bagged his second successive bronze medal at the Asian Championship after defeating Junjie Na of China 3-2.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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'
