NANDINI NAGAR (GONDA): The two-hour delay meant the men's freestyle bouts on Day 1 of the Senior Ranking Tournament at Nandini Nagar, Gonda (Uttar Pradesh) started at 10 am on Sunday. The 30 officials and 596 wrestlers were all charged up and why not - the grapplers were getting a quality competition while referees had an opportunity to brush up their skills by judging the bouts.
By evening, the excitement and enthusiasm gave way to tiredness and exhaustion but it didn't stop there as the bouts continued till 7 am on Monday morning. Ironically, the men's freestyle competition couldn't finish despite spilling over into the next morning, as the final bouts were held after an hour-long break to give stakeholders some respite and a chance to refresh themselves.
"As it is an open tournament, wrestlers who are registered with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and willing to compete, cannot be stopped. Besides, the tournament holds importance as it makes wrestlers eligible for the selection trials scheduled to pick the teams for upcoming World Championships and Commonwealth Champions," an official at the venue told this daily on the condition of anonymity.
Initially, 600-plus freestyle wrestlers registered for the event but after verification 596 were allowed to compete. "It's a huge number as every bout takes 6 minutes (two periods of three minutes each) including 30 seconds break in between," said the official. A total of 668 bouts were held in almost 24 hours to decide the medallists (1 gold, 1 silver and two bronze) in each of the ten weight categories. It is unlikely to change in the men's Greco-Roman competition scheduled on Monday as around 450 wrestlers have registered for the event, which also will be held in 10 weight categories.
"We couldn't sleep at night, and whatever time we got in the morning, we used it to freshen up ourselves and get ready for the second day of the tournament. We have intimated the WFI of the issue and the federation has assured us to sort the issue," added the official.
One of the wrestlers, who was involved in a mid night bout, echoed the sentiments and said the demanding schedule must have taken a toll on grapplers and match officials. "Most of the wrestlers, who reached the final, played a minimum of five bouts in a gap of a few hours. As the competition continued throughout the night, the winners in each weight category could not leave the venue until they made it to the final. But they had to come back in the morning as the finals were scheduled early in the day. The WFI has to allot more days for the tournament keeping in mind the huge entries it receives," complained the wrestler.
With the schedule not going down well with the match officials and wrestlers, the WFI decided to implement reformative measures from the next edition. "We saw how tiring it was for both wrestlers and officials," Sanjay Kumar Singh, the WFI president, told this daily. "The next edition will see men's freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions happening across two days each. Each day will witness bouts in five weight categories. The entries in women wrestling usually stay low. This time also only 250 women registered for the competition. So their bouts will be held in one day," said Sanjay Kumar.
This practically means the next edition of the ranking tournament will be of five days - two days for men's freestyle, two days for men's Greco-Roman and one-day for women wrestling. It will be a welcome relief for both officials and wrestlers. Ironically, the relief is not immediate as the officials and grapplers were once again seen fighting the gruelling schedule on Monday.
