Twitter
Advertisement

Wrestlers suffer due to ongoing court battle; exposure trip withheld

The Poland trip was organised only a few days back when Belarus refused to host Indian wrestling team in their capital city of Minsk. The wrestling arena in Minsk is the same venue where the Indian team had a 21-day training stint before the London Olympics.

Latest News
article-main
Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

While Sushil Kumar's case in the Delhi High Court is lingering on, Indian wrestlers have been hit with yet another blow. Their exposure trip to Poland has been withheld by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) till the court room battle is settled.

While Sushil's case for conducting a selection trial against Narsingh Pancham Yadav is still going on, preparations of seven other Indian grapplers, both men's and women's freestyle and Greco Roman, have been thrown into jeopardy.

The Poland trip was organised only a few days back when Belarus refused to host Indian wrestling team in their capital city of Minsk. The wrestling arena in Minsk is the same venue where the Indian team had a 21-day training stint before the London Olympics.

This message came from Belarus federation after the WFI dilly-dallied in finalising the training schedule and did not tell the exact dates of the team's arrival in Minsk.

However, the WFI officials maintained that it was an excuse from Belarus as having a training session with the Indian team would have exposed their own top grapplers, thus minimising their own chances of winning medal at the Games.

Both Sushil and Yogeshwar Dutt, medal winners at the London Games, acknowledged that it was their stint in Belarus that helped them reach their peak form at the right time during the 2012 Games. However, this time around, Belarus bluntly told WFI that "it would not be able to host Indian wrestlers as their own wrestlers would be away for training elsewhere".

So, the WFI hurriedly arranged the team's training stint in Poland, followed by Poland Cup to be held from June 17 to 19.

WFI has withheld important training-cum-competition trip to Spala in Poland till the court pronounces its verdict in Sushil's case. While the Rio-bound wrestlers have been left to practice at the SAI's Sonepat centre, the WFI has trained all its guns to fight the legal battle against Sushil, thus robbing the grapplers of the all-important foreign exposure trip.

The plan was to send all the eight Rio qualified wrestlers last week. But with Sushil's case still being heard in the court, the departure was put on hold till the final name between Narsingh and Sushil was not finalised.

"Even the focus of our wrestlers, currently in Sonepat, is not entirely on training because of the ongoing court battle. This is certainly hampering not just our training but also our Olympic preparation. And, that is certainly not the best scenario for Indian wrestling, given the fact that we expect a repeat of London Games in Rio," said a senior WFI official on Saturday.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement