CHENNAI: Day One of the Senior National Wrestling Championships in Ahmedabad saw a bizarre incident wherein a woman wrestler first gave a walkover to her opponent in the quarterfinal and then returned to the mat for the repechage round winning two bouts to end with a bronze medal.
Before the walkover, Nitu, the wrestler in question from Chandigarh, defeated Lalita from Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) thus eliminating her from the competition in the 57kg weight category. As per the United World Wrestling (UWW) rules, a wrestler gets another shot at the bronze medal if her/his opponent enters the final. Nitu got the chance as the wrestler, Neha Sharma from Delhi, whom she had given a walkover to, reached the final.
Lalita filed a complaint against Ritu with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in this regard. Interestingly, in her complaint, Lalita raised question over Nitu's participation from Chandigarh accusing that she hails from Haryana. She also said that Neha also hails from Haryana but represented Delhi in the nationals.
When contacted, Lalita expressed her inability to talk as she was upset. However, a source who witnessed the bout, alleged it was a ploy to deprive RSPB of a medal. "She gave a walkover in the quarterfinal thus depriving Lalita a chance to appear in the bronze medal bout. How can someone not compete and then return to the mat within an hour? She not only competed but won two bouts to bag the bronze," the source told this daily.
VN Prasood, the competition director, however, cited the world body (United World Wrestling) rules and said Nitu returned to the competition after producing the medical certificate. "The UWW rules say a participant can return to the competition despite giving a walkover in the earlier bout if doctors present at the venue presents him/her the fitness certificate," Prasood said.
Interestingly, Haryana won the team championship in the women's wrestling on the inaugural day tallying 190 points. A gold medal earns 25 point and Haryana's Manisha finished first in the 57kg weight category defeating Neha. Meanwhile, the RSPB didn't get a single point in the 57kg division. The board stood second in the ranking with 144 points.
"A gold medal in a weight category can play a big role in teams' standings and that can be seen as RSPB lost the championship by a few points. Besides, the two wrestlers — Nitu and Neha — were warned in the previous championships as well for competing for other state units despite hailing from Haryana. However, they were again allowed to compete which eventually had an impact on the RSPB wrestler," signed off the source.
Meanwhile, Paris Olympian Antim Panghal won a gold medal in the 55kg weight category. She represented the RSPB in the event and defeated Jyoti of Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) in the final to finish on the top of the podium. The second day of the nationals will see men's freestyle wrestlers competing in all the 10 weight categories. Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat will be the centre of the attraction as he will compete for the first time since being banned for one year by the WFI. The wrestler, who will compete in 61kg instead of his pet category 57kg, was found overweight during the 2025 World Championships and subsequently banned by the national federation. The ban was lifted later making Aman eligible to compete at the nationals.
