CHENNAI: With prestigious events like the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games scheduled this year, Indian wrestlers were supposed to begin their preparations with the Commonwealth Championships slated in December in South Africa. Unfortunately, the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic struck, postponing the event and depriving the country's wrestlers of much-needed competitions.
However, now the sporting calendar has resumed across the globe and the Indian wrestlers will also get two competitions this month. The first will be the Dan Kolov — Nikola Petrov International Tournament in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria from February 17 to 20 while the next is the Yasar Dogu Ranking Series slated from February 24-27 in Istanbul, Turkey. For the record, Indian grapplers last competed in an international event in the U-23 World Championships held in November in Serbia.
"The events will be the first for Indian wrestlers after the senior and U-23 Worlds. The gold medallists of the 1st Open Ranking Tournament held last month will be given an opportunity to compete in the Bulgaria event. Apart from them, silver medallists from the event and nationals will also represent the country there but they have to bear their expenses," Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), told this daily.
It is learnt that three wrestlers can compete in a weight category from the participating nation in the competition. The Ranking Series will see participation from the gold medallists of the nationals.
"Nationals gold medallists will compete in the Turkey event. The Tokyo Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya along with Vinesh Phogat and Deepak Punia will also compete there," added Tomar.
Recently the sports ministry had approved the training of Ravi, Deepak and six other wrestlers for a special camp from February 5 to 23 in Teteven, Bulgaria. The WFI had made the recommendation so that the wrestlers can begin preparations for the busy season ahead. The 14-member squad includes four freestylers, four Greco-Roman wrestlers, four sparring partners and two coaches.
"Ravi and Deepak will first compete in Bulgaria and then leave for Turkey to compete there. We hope the events give our wrestlers desired competition time ahead of the big events like the Asiad and CWG. We are really thankful to the Sports Authority of India and sports ministry for accepting our recommendations for the training camp in Bulgaria and participation in these two events," said Tomar.