Since January, Bajrang and Vinesh have not participated in any international tournaments and in fact, they have missed training abroad despite Sports Authority of India (SAI) clearance on training and exhibition stays. at their request.
Sparring was out of the question for these top wrestlers after they resumed their protest sit-in at Jantar Mantar, demanding the arrest of Indian Wrestling Federation (WFI) leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom they accused of sexually exploiting female wrestlers.
Until recently, they were adamant that unless their demands are met, they will not train or compete in international tournaments. In the last fortnight they had two light training sessions at Jantar Mantar only.
However, Vinesh said on Sunday that he would return to training and no longer shy away from tournaments.
During the hour-long session at a nearby stadium, Bajrang had Jitender Kinha as his training partner while Vinesh trained with his cousin Sangeeta and Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik.
Satyawart Kadian trained with his brother Sombir.
“The last time we did mat training was a day before this event resumed. And you saw how busy we were meeting supporters over the past 15 days. The talks were going on even late at night training was not possible. But now we will do mat training consistently,” said a wrestler who was part of the training session.
“We had light training today following the techniques. Gradually we will also start strength and endurance training. We hope that a proper resolution will come and at that time we want to be ready for THE asian games trials. We also want to participate in the next Ranking Series tournament,” he added.
However, the squad for the UWW Ranking Series event, which is to be held in Bishkek from June 1-4, has already been decided. It’s more or less the same team that participated in the Asian Championships in Astana in April and won 14 medals.
Bajrang, Vinesh, Sakshi, Satyawart and Sangeeta were not part of the Indian squad in Astana as they protested.
IOA ad hoc panel meets for the first time
The ad hoc panel, formed by the IOA to manage the day-to-day activities of the WFI, held discussions with SAI coaches and officials.
Member of the ad hoc committee, national shooting coach Suma Shirur did not attend the meeting and another member of the panel, Bhupendra Singh Bajwa, discussed the roadmap with the coaches.
Keeping in mind the Asian Under-17 and Under-23 Wrestling Championships, which will be held in Bishkek from June 10-18, the jury decided to hold tryouts from May 17-19 at the stadium. Indira Gandhi.
There have been talks of resuming national camps for senior wrestlers, but SAI will take one last call.
“There has been no problem regarding the men’s national camp and a date will soon be finalized by SAI, but the female wrestlers do not wish to join the camp in Lucknow. They want the camp to be held in Delhi in IG stadium but housing is an issue there,” an IOA source said.
“SAI officials are discussing this and will finalize the dates and location of the camp soon,” the sources added.
Farmers arrive in large numbers at the site of the demonstration
In the morning, farmers from Punjab and khap members from Haryana reached the site of the protest to lend their support to the wrestlers. They even knocked down the barricades to enter the site.
It sounded more like a protest by farmers than an agitation of wrestlers. In the evening, workers were seen welding the barricades to ensure that farmers did not cross the cordon, as they did on Monday morning.
(With PTI inputs)
