CHENNAI: Personal coaches of Olympic-bound Indian wrestlers, who are training in Russia at the moment, will not travel to Tokyo along with their wards on July 29. They, in fact, are scheduled to leave the country a few days later. However, Vinesh Phogat's (53kg) Hungarian coach, Woller Akos, will accompany her when she leaves Hungary for Tokyo on July 26.
"Travel plan of these personal coaches has been designed to ensure they get accommodation at the Games Village as soon as they reach there," said a Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) official. Three Indian wrestlers — Bajrang Punia (65kg), Ravi Dahiya (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) — are training in Vladikavkaz along with their personal coaches. While Bajrang is training with Georgian Shako Bentinidis, who is an employee of WFI, Ravi is being coached by Russian Kamal Malikov. Murad Gaidarov, the 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medallist, is the coach of Deepak. "These coaches are scheduled to leave on August 1 and they reach Tokyo the next day," added the official. These wrestlers will reach Moscow on July 25 and take RT-PCR tests there before leaving.
As many as eight wrestling coaches, including four overseas coaches, have been cleared for the Olympics. The Indian coaches are expected to accompany the wrestlers to Tokyo.
Apart from these male grapplers, three Tokyo-bound women wrestlers, Seema Bisla (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Sonam Malik (62kg), who are training at SAI centre in Sonepat, have taken two RT-PCR tests till Tuesday. They, along with chief coach Kuldeep Malik, will fly out of the country on July 26.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Vinesh's husband Somvir Rathi reached Hungary a couple of days ago to deliver the Olympic accreditation card. He is also expected to accompany Vinesh to the Games. "He has a plan to go to Tokyo to watch Vinesh in action. Given the situation due to the pandemic and restrictions imposed in Tokyo to counter it, the plan is not yet finalised. If he gets desired permission, he may go to Tokyo," said a source.
A total of seven wrestlers (three male and four female) will compete at the Tokyo Games. The wrestling competition will begin on August 1 with bouts in Greco-Roman category.