CHENNAI: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in its executive committee meeting on Tuesday decided to go ahead with the senior national championship scheduled in Pune from January 29 to 31. While the WFI president Sanjay Kumar Singh claimed more than 20 state units out of affiliated 25 members agreed to send their teams for the event, the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) will be conspicuous by its absence.
The RSPB, which won the overall championships in men’s freestyle and women’s wrestling in the previous edition (2022), in fact will send the team to the nationals announced by the ad-hoc committee. The event is slated in Jaipur from February 2 to 5 and will be hosted by the RSPB. The absence of the RSPB meant prominent wrestlers including Aman Sehrawat, who recently won 57kg gold in Zagreb Open Ranking Series, Vishal Kaliraman and Sarita Mor will also skip the event and take part in the nationals being organised by their employer, Indian Railways. Notably, all these wrestlers won a gold medal each in their respective weight categories in the previous nationals. “I will compete in the Jaipur event,” Aman told this daily. Sarita’s husband Rahul Maan also echoed the sentiments. “Sarita will compete in the RSPB event,” he said.
Sanjay Singh admitted that the RSPB wrestlers will not be attending the event being organised by the WFI. It should be noted here that the WFI led by Sanjay Singh has been abstained from functioning by the sports ministry. The ministry, in fact, has formed a three-member ad-hoc panel led by Bhupender Singh Bajwa to run the day-to-day affairs of the federation.
“The WFI constitution mandates the federation to organise the nationals. How can the ad-hoc panel organise the tournament? I know the Railway wrestlers cannot attend our event as the ad-hoc body has given the hosting rights for other nationals to the RSPB. But other state units, almost 23 of them, have agreed to send their wrestlers to our nationals. Most of them have already hosted the state championships to select the teams,” Sanjay Singh told this daily.
Interestingly, the RSPB is organising a national camp for its wrestlers in Kapurthala. One of the coaches at the camp confirmed that the wrestlers are preparing for the Jaipur event. Meanwhile, 13 executive members out of 15 attended the executive committee meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday. Only secretary Prem Chand Lochab and senior vice-president Devender Kadiyan skipped the meeting. It was informed that Kadiyan reached the venue after the meeting. “We invited everyone including Lochab and Kadiyan. We mailed the invitation to Lochab on mail which he used to mail us in the past but didn’t get any response,” added Sanjay Singh.
Federation writes to UWW
Meanwhile, the WFI has written a mail to the world governing body, United World Wrestling, replying to its queries. “The UWW has sought details about the elections, and the committees we have formed including the Athletes’ Commission. We have sent a mail to it and waiting for its response,” said the WFI president. Speaking on the sports ministry, he said the WFI will send a reminder to it as the federation has yet not received any response for the mail it sent in the past. “I have written to the sports ministry seeking time for a meeting but have not received any response yet. We will send a reminder as we want to sort out issues through dialogues.”
Sanjay Singh also expressed unhappiness over Indian wrestlers competing under a neutral flag in international meets. “Recently when Aman won gold in Zagreb, neither the tricolour was raised nor the national anthem was played which is unfortunate. This should end as soon as possible and it is possible only when all the stakeholders come together and focus solely on the betterment of the sport.”
Meanwhile, Lochab has written to the WFI president and said the executive committee meeting cannot be held as the body has been abstained from functioning.
