CHENNAI: Even as the women wrestlers created history and won the team title by clinching five gold medals at the U17 World Championships in Amman, Jordan a few days back, their male counterparts touched a new low at the venue by finishing without any medal. In the event where India have been winning at least a couple of medals in men’s freestyle wrestling since 2018, the recent show should ring alarm bells for authorities concerned including the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI).
The Indian women got the better of wrestling heavyweights Japan to lift the historic team championship. Given their show, expectations were high from the men freestyle wrestlers. The title might have been a far-fetched aspiration but a few medals were definitely expected. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Among the 10 participants from the country, only Jaspooran Singh managed to reach the bronze medal play-off only to lose it late on Saturday night. Similarly, Vevik got a chance to stake his claim over the 80kg bronze but he lost the repechage round to go out of contention.
In 2023, Indian FS wrestlers won two silver at the event. The show at the 2022 edition was even better with Sachin Mor pocketing 80kg gold and five others returning with a bronze each. In 2021, the gold count was two with a silver and three bronze as well in the kitty. India won four bronze in 2019 and a silver and two bronze a year before in the freestyle.
Wrestling has been the only sport to fetch at least a medal in every Olympics since 2008 with Aman Sehrawat continuing the tradition in Paris by bagging 57kg bronze. Ahead of the 2024 Games, the sport, however, suffered an ignominy as only Aman managed to qualify for the Games, the first since 2004, in men’s wrestling.
Incidentally, the women had created history as five of them earned Paris quotas. The contrasting shows by men and women freestyle wrestlers raise eyebrows as these age-group grapplers are the ones for the future. Sanjay Kumar Singh, WFI president, claims the autonomy of the federation has been compromised which has resulted into such a debacle.
“The government should understand. The SAI needs to give full freedom to the WFI as was the case in the past. We have not held a national camp for months now. Wrestlers hardly got any exposure trips. These all factors have been affecting India’s show at international events,” Singh said.
The WFI chief, however, attributed women’s success to discipline and dedication and asserted, “Except for a few first days, most of the women wrestlers were not part of the protest. They in fact trained hard at their centres. Their men counterparts have gone astrayed in the absence of the camps.” There may be other reasons for the dismal performance as well but such shows are definitely not a good omen for the future of Indian wrestling.