CHENNAI: Aadhaar seems to have become an effective tool for Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to verify age of wrestlers. The federation has disqualified around 125 freestyle men wrestlers a day before the commencement of the 2026 U17 Open Ranking National Tournament in Nandini Nagar, Gonda (Uttar Pradesh) on Friday. These wrestlers registered themselves for the tournament but failed the age test during the verification process usually held a day before the competition in a particular style.
"In order to check details like domicile and age certificates, you need to have a one-time password (OTP) which is generated and sent to registered mobile numbers. The good part is it shows all the changes made in sequence which in turn reveals the updated certificates of birth and domicile. This way we can find out when a wrestler has attached his/her new birth certificate and what's the age in the old documents," a WFI official, who is part of the verification process, told this daily.
Interestingly, scores of wrestlers declined to share their respective OTPs with the WFI officials and left the venue without completing the verification process. "The circular clearly said wrestlers not born before 2009 are eligible to participate. On verification using their respective Aadhaar card numbers, we found numerous wrestlers changed their birth year using new birth certificates. Their previous certificates told us the complete story as many of them were born three or four years before the cut-off year of 2009," added the official.
The verification of men Greco-Roman and woman wrestlers will begin a day before the competition starts in their respective styles. "The numbers of disqualified wrestlers will only increase as the tournament progresses," said the official. The competition in Greco-Roman style will be held on Sunday followed by bouts in women wrestling the next day.
Manisha, Neha clinch gold
Meanwhile, women wrestlers Manisha (57kg) and Neha (59kg) clinched gold medals in their respective weight categories at the Ulaanbaatar Open Ranking Series in Mongolia on Friday. Manisha defeated North Korea's Sim Son 3-1 in the title clash to finish on the top of the podium. Neha beat Pyol Hong from North Korea 5-3 to clinch the gold. Apart from the duo, Neelam won a bronze medal in the 50kg weight category beating Kazakhstan’s Maral Tangirbergenova 10-0 by technical superiority.
The Indian contingent has secured six medals so far in the tournament. The Greco-Roman wrestlers completed their campaign with two gold and one bronze. Sunil (87kg) and Nitesh (97kg) were the gold winners from the country while Sumit (60kg) finished third, bagging a bronze medal. Bouts in the remaining weight divisions of the women wrestling and men freestyle will begin on Saturday.
