CHENNAI: In a surprising move, the 2020 Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia (86kg) has decided to compete in the upcoming U-23 Asian Wrestling Championships skipping the all-important Rome Ranking Series. The event will be Deepak’s first in any age-group international meet since August 2019 when he clinched 86kg gold in junior Worlds. As per United World Wrestling’s (UWW) record, he last competed in an U-23 international event back in November 2017. The U-23 Asian Championships is scheduled in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from June 19 to 26 while the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series is slated from June 22 to 25 in Italy.
“He (Deepak) felt the U-23 continental event is important and wanted to compete there. Apart from him, three more freestyle wrestlers from the senior category (74kg Naveen, 97kg Deepak and 125kg Mohit Grewal) will take part in the Bishkek event,” Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), told this daily.
The UWW is organising four Ranking Series this year. According to the UWW, the top eight wrestlers, who acquire the most points from these series events and the continental championships, will earn a seed for the World Championships. The Worlds is scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia from September 10-18. Since his brilliant show in 2019 when he clinched junior Worlds gold and silver in senior Worlds, Deepak was in the top-4 of his weight category most of the time. Inconsistency, coupled with injury, however, made him slip considerably in the ranking chart as presently he is placed ninth.
He won silver at the 2022 Asian Championships in April but competed in 92kg at the two finished Ranking Series thus earning himself no points to climb up the ladder. He bagged bronze in the first series event (Yasar Dogu) in February and forfeited all his bouts due to injury in the second series held in Almaty, Kazakhstan early this month. As he has decided to skip the Rome series, he is now left with only a ranking event to compete which is scheduled in Tunis, Tunisia from July 14 to 17 ahead of the Worlds, and secure as many points as possible.
“He will improve the ranking before the Worlds. It’s not a big issue,” asserted Tomar. Virender Singh, Deepak’s coach, also echoed the sentiments but emphasised that injuries prevented his ward from winning medals of late. “Even during the selection trials held to pick up the national squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, he has a rib injury. Despite that, he competed there to make it to the squad. But it delayed his recovery. He is getting better with each passing day,” the coach signed off.