Cracking the whip on senior wrestlers for "gross indiscipline" and "deliberately skipping the national camp", the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday suspended 13 senior grapplers and two coaches from its Sonepat centre. The athletes were preparing for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Cracking the whip on senior wrestlers for "gross indiscipline" and "deliberately skipping the national camp", the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday suspended 13 senior grapplers and two coaches from its Sonepat centre. The athletes were preparing for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
This is one of the biggest crackdowns in recent history. WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh made a surprise visit to the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) high-profile Sonepat centre and found out that some of the senior grapplers, including 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games silver medallist in 120 kg (super heavyweight) category, Joginder Singh, had been regularly skipping the practice sessions meant for Rio qualifiers.
The grapplers also did not take part in the mandatory practice sessions, arranged by WFI, to train with visiting Georgian wrestlers. Apart from the wrestlers, the WFI also removed chief national men's freestyle coach Vinod Kumar, assistant men's freestyle coach Rajneesh and women's team coach Ramani Chanu from the national camp for different reasons, including non-performance.
The WFI has an exchange programme agreement with the Georgian Wrestling Federation (GWF) and their senior freestyle and Greco-Roman grapplers were at the SAI centre to train together for the Rio Games qualifiers, beginning with the World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas from September 7-12.
After receiving a complaint from a senior WFI official posted at the SAI centre, Sharan Singh made a sudden inspection and immediately expelled the 13 wrestlers after he found they were absent from the training arena where other senior grapplers were practising.
According to an official posted at the SAI centre, Sharan Singh considered their absence as a "serious indiscipline" and ordered their suspension. "The 13 wrestlers, including 11 from Greco-Roman and one each from the men's and women's categories, comprise Indu Chaudhary of Lucknow," the official told dna late on Friday.
They have been asked to submit a written explanation.
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