The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Tuesday decided to give the country’s lone Olympic quota place winner Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg) the relief of competing in only one final bout in the upcoming selection trials for Asian championships.
The trials will be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi on March 10 and 11.
As per a WFI circular, the winner of the 53kg weight category will fight with World championships and two-time World under-20 champion Antim, who is reportedly nursing an injury, in a final trial which will be held in March end.
The wrestlers selected in Olympic weight classes will represent the country in both the Asian championships (April 11-16) and the Asian Olympic Games qualifier (April 19-21) to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
A case filed by the protesting wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Satyawart Kadian, challenging the trials is pending in the Delhi High Court.
Meanwhile, the WFI, which is still ‘suspended’ by the Union Sports Ministry even though the United World Wrestling (UWW) has lifted its suspension, has decided to hold its special general meeting (SGM) in Noida on March 29.
The possibility of functioning the WFI at no cost to the Government, the directions given by the UWW for the formation of the Athletes’ Commission and adopting required amendments to its constitution to explain, define and interpret certain provisions of the Sports Code and the judgement of the Delhi High Court regarding this will be discussed at the SGM.
