CHENNAI: FACING a huge protest over its proposal to organise one-bout Asian Games and World Championships trials for protesting wrestlers, the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA ) ad-hoc committee has decided to meet national coaches to pick their brains on the issue. National coaches Jagminder Singh (men’s freestyle), Hargobind Singh (Greco-Roman) and Virender Dahiya (women’s wrestling) are scheduled to meet ad-hoc committee member Bhupender Singh Bajwa in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) on Thursday afternoon.
“The issue has to be sorted out soon as we are running out of time. As far as three national coaches are concerned, they are against the one-bout trials and they will convey it to the ad-hoc committee,” a source in the know of developments told this daily.
Dates of trials and how they can be organised could be other topics of discussion during the meeting.
“It all depends on the reply of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). If the OCA allows an extension of the deadline till August 15 then selection trials can be conducted close to that date. However, if it does not entertain the IOA ’s request then the trials have to be conducted latest by July 15, the last date for sending the final entries for the Asiad,” added the source.
Though there were reasons to believe that it might be difficult to get the OCA nod there are indications that officials are trying to get some concession. As the Asian Games will be preceded by the Worlds, which is also an Olympic Games qualifier, there is a section in the wrestling fraternity that is of the opinion that two separate trials can be conducted for both the events as last date for sending entries for the Worlds is August 16.
However, the coaches strongly believe only one trial should be held as both events are important. “Both tournaments are scheduled quite close to each other so holding separate trials makes no sense. Also, there is no logic in sending separate teams as every wrestler wants to compete in both events given their importance.” The Worlds will be held in Belgrade, Serbia from September 16 to 24 while the wrestling competitions at the Asiad will be organised between October 4 to 7 in Hangzhou, China.
Even as the ad-hoc panel proposed one-bout trials, the wrestlers in question including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik along with multiple Worlds medallist Vinesh Phogat had asserted that they had only requested an extension of the trials deadline. Interestingly, Satyawart Kadian, Jitender Kinha and Sangeeta Phogat are other wrestlers for whom the exemption has been proposed by the panel.