CHENNAI: One of the women wrestlers, who competed in the selection trials in Patiala on Monday, wrote to the United World Wrestling (UWW) requesting it not to accept Vinesh Phogat's entry in the 50kg category and trained the gun at the ad hoc committee for flouting norms.
The complainant also urged the world governing body to direct the WFI to hold fresh trials in the weight category. This development comes on the heels of a Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) report to the world governing body on the incident.
Notably, two-time World Championships medallist Vinesh won the 50kg final securing a place in the contingent for the Asian Championships and Asian Olympic Games Qualifier scheduled next month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Vinesh also competed in the 53kg during the trials, losing the semifinal.
This apparently irked wrestlers, who even approached the ad-hoc committee members complaining against the move that led to a considerable delay in the commencement of competitions in both weight categories.
"I would like to draw your attention towards the violation of the UWW Rules during the selection trials conducted by the illegal ad-hoc committee," the wrestler wrote in her mail to UWW. "In fact, the ad-hoc committee is not well conversant about the rules and regulations of wrestling and chairman of ad-hoc committee basically belongs to wushu game. The UWW technical officials had also followed the directions of the chairman, ad-hoc committee," she added.
This daily spoke to the complainant, who, on the condition of anonymity, admitted that she had lodged a complaint with the UWW. "It appeared that the trials were organised for one particular wrestler as all the rules and regulations were set aside to make sure she not only competes in two weight categories but also wins the bouts. If that was the case, why this farce? They should have sent her name directly for the tournaments," the wrestler complained.
In her complaint, she also said the weigh-in started at 7 AM but the ad-hoc committee and referees deliberately started bouts in the two weight categories at 1:30 pm.
"Sir, it was not selection trials. In fact, it was all drama controlled by the ad-hoc committee through the UWW referees and Vinesh Phogat. The other referees were also sitting idly and no one objected to this rule. My request is that kindly do not accept the entry in 50kg and direct WFI to hold the fresh trial in 50kg since the trial in this weight category was totally controlled by Vinesh only," the wrestler wrote.
One of the members of the ad-hoc committee, MM Somaya, when contacted, expressed his inability to speak on the issue. The member said only the chairman can speak on the issue. Chairman Bhupender Singh Bajwa didn't respond to a query in this regard.
Even WFI sources claimed after the trials that the representatives from the federation were directed to leave the venue during Vinesh's bouts. The WFI had also written to the UWW explaining its position and questioning the decisions taken by the ad-hoc committee.
The UWW had told this daily on Monday that an athlete cannot compete in two weight categories. "This is the problem for WFI, the ethics panel will consider this. However, the national federations sometimes have slightly different rules and the UWW would like to know what exactly happened, (how) the weigh in was performed, what was the real weight and so on, what was the time gap between the matches and so on," the world body replied to a query in this regard.