Wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia on Friday met Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who assured them of support in every way in their fight for justice.
The last three years in Deepak Punia's life still sounds like a dream.
Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar lived up to his reputation as he bagged a gold in men's 66kg freestyle on the second day of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi.
Amit Kumar clinched gold in men's 55kg category while three other grapplers bagged a bronze each to end two days of disappointment for India in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi.
The ministry, while suspending the newly-formed WFI panel under president Sanjay Singh on December 24, three days after he was elected its head, had cited the office running from Brij Bhushan's residence as one of the reasons for taking the stringent action.
Pitted against heavyweights in their respective first round, both Sonam and Anshu cared little for reputations, fighting fearlessly.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Spurred by Sushil Kumar's world title, Indian wrestlers would look to make amends of the embarrassment they have brought to the nation by the dope flunk of six grapplers and win a rich haul of medals when the sport makes its return in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month.
India's wrestlers have proved to be a big hit and have been a major contributor to the gold medal rush for the hosts at the ongoing 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Bajrang Punia lost his semi-final bout against home wrestler Daulet Niyazbekov under controversial circumstances after he secured his place in the Tokyo Olympics along with debutant Ravi Dahiya at the World Wrestling Championships.
With Narsingh's participation in serious doubt, Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com spoke exclusively to Sushil Kumar's coach Satpal Singh.
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.
Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Saturday joined protesting farmers at the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana and said the central government should pay heed to their demands and make it a priority to address their issues.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), on Thursday, denied sending any list of Olympic probables, sans Sushil Kumar, to the Indian Olympic Association, insisting that the two-time medallist is not yet out of contention for the Rio Games.
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.
Bajrang Punia (men's 65kg) posted an impressive victory on the penultimate day of the Asian Wrestling Championship on Saturday.
Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday refused to involve himself in the boiling controversy over wrestler Bajrang Punia returning his Padma Shri.
Manika Batra cruised to the semi-finals of the women's singles even as experienced paddler Mouma Das ended her campaign in the Commonwealth Games table tennis event.
'I want to finish what I have started.'
Following is India's schedule at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, on Saturday, October 7.
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.
Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as "politics". Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.
On Friday, Sakshi (65kg, silver), Vinesh (53kg, bronze) young Anshu Malik (57kg bronze) and Gursharan Preet kaur (72kg, bronze) added to India's tally.
Four years of blood, sweat and tears culminated into a historic Olympic performance as Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt did the country proud with lion-hearted performances in a truly memorable 2012 for Indian wrestling.
Young Indian wrestler Aman Gukia emerged the new World champion in the Cadet Championship after a convincing 5-2 victory over Luke Joseph Lilledahl of the United States in 48kg final, in Budapest, on Tuesday.
Newly-appointed Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Sanjay Singh on Saturday lashed out at the protesting grapplers for "engaging in politics" and asserted that he is not a dummy candidate of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
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.
There was no stopping the gold rush in wrestling as two more were added to the tally by Vinesh Phogat (50kg) and Sumit (125kg) but Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) had to be content with a third-place finish in the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Saturday.
In a historic first for Indian women's wrestling, the country notched up a second medal at the ongoing World Championships after Geeta Kumari (55kg) added another bronze to the one clinched by her sister Babita in Edmonton, Canada.
WFI decided that it will seek a dialogue with the Sports Ministry for revocation of its suspension, saying it does not want a clash with the government and the legal options will be explored only if talks fail.
Indian women grappler Suman Kundu is in with a chance to bag the country's fourth bronze medal in wrestling as she will fight it out in the third-fourth place play-off bout, after losing in the semi-finals of the 63kg freestyle category in the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Friday.
He will now clash with Switzerland's Stefan Reichmuth for a place in the gold medal match.
Shami was there to receive the honours. He took 24 wickets in seven World Cup games last year.
Bajrang Punia's perennial leg-defence weakness came to haunt him at the big stage as he lost the men's freestyle 65kg semi-final to three-time world champion Haji Aliev at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
A miffed WFI feared that it could be penalised by the world body United World Wrestling (UWW), if Pakistani grapplers were denied Visa.
India's Yogeshwar Dutt beat Yusupov Zalimkhan of Tajikistan 1-0 to win the gold medal in the men's freestyle 65 kg wrestling event at the Asian Games in Incheon.
Kadian, who competes in heavy-weight category, reiterated that their fight is against the WFI chief and not against the government.
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.
Athletes lauded for their performances on National Sports Day
Aman Sehrawat's Olympic dream suffers a setback as he is comprehensively outclassed by top seed Rei Higuchi
