Wrestling trials on July 22 and 23 in New Delhi

PTI, Jul 12, 2023, 8:21 PM IST

New Delhi: The IOA ad-hoc committee on Wednesday decided to hold much-awaited wrestling trials for the Asian Games on July 22 and 23 but the panel is still undecided on criteria and if any of the six protesting wrestlers should be given exemption.

After IOA’s request, seeking extension beyond July 22 was shot down by the OCA, the ad-hoc panel met in New Delhi and decided that men’s Greco Roman and Women’s trials will be held on July 22 and selection to pick free style team will be done the next day.

Trials in 18 Olympic weight categories — six each in three formats (free style and Greco Roman for men and free style for women) — have to be conducted by the ad-hoc committee.

“We have decided to conduct trials on July 22 and 23 at the Kedar Jadhav hall in IG Stadium. First we will invite the Greco Roman and women’s wrestlers and then the men’s free style wrestlers. We want our interested U-20 wrestlers to compete in the Asian Games trials.

They will return to India on July 21 and hence we want to give them a chance to make a case for themselves,” ad-hoc panel head Bhupender Singh Bajwa told PTI.

“I will share the criteria with you all tomorrow. We are still undecided on that,” Bajwa added.

India’s U-15 and U-20 contingents are in Jordan’s capital city of Amman to compete in the Asian Championship.

Six wrestlers — Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Sangeeta Phogat, Satyawart Kadiyan and Jitender Kinha — had requested the IOA to give them time till August 10 to prepare for the trial, saying they are not in best physical and mental shape due to their months-long protest against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

While Vinesh is in Budapest to compete in season’s last UWW Ranking Series event, Bajrang, Jitender and Sangeeta are in Bishkek for training.

Sakshi and her husband Kadiyan are in the US for training.

The panel had earlier proposed that trials will be held in two stages where the six wrestlers will asked to compete against the winners of the initial trials to book their slot for the Asian Games.

However, the decision had invited criticism from all quarters with many terming it as “biased” and “unfair”.

The ad-hoc panel will meet again on Friday to decide on the final criteria.

“Tomorrow, the committee members will meet Sports Minister and IOA President. We want to take their advise. It is also being deliberated that six protesting wrestlers’ names can be sent as reserves also,” coach Gian Singh, a panel member, said.

“The best 3-4 wrestlers in each category can be asked to compete against each other in a round-robin format in August and the best wrestler can be picked for the Asian Games, but nothing is finalised,” he added.