01-05-2025
Women's wrestling camp shifted to IG Stadium in Delhi
New Delhi: After a gap of more than two years the national wrestling coaching camps started on Thursday, with the women's camp being organised at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here. The men's Freestyle and Greco Roman national camps are being held at the SAI NCOE centre in Lucknow.
The national camps had not been organised since top wrestlers took to streets protesting against the then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. WFI, subsequently, faced a long suspension, even though fresh elections were held in December 2023. The suspension by the Sports Ministry was finally revoked in March this year.
The WFI had earlier proposed to hold the women's camp in SAI Gandhinagar, and the men's camp at Army Sports Institute, Pune. However, that could not happen due to various reasons.
SAI has provided sanction for a 61-day camp, but it is likely to be extended till the word championships in September (13-21) in Croatia. A total of 120 wrestlers -- 40 each in women's, men's freestyle and Greco roman styles -- have been selected based on the performance in the trials for the Asian Championships.
The women's camp used to be held in Lucknow and it made news for wrong reasons during the protests. The Internal Complaints Committee of WFI, formed in the wake of sexual harassment allegations levelled by some of the top wrestlers, will visit the national camps at regular intervals, said an official of WFI. 'Monika Khera, who is chairperson of the ICC, has attended national championship and trials, and she will also visit the national camp in Delhi,' said an official.
Four wrestlers each have been picked for each weight division based on their performance in Asian Championships trials. The four wrestlers in the 57kg weight class are Chirag Chikkara, Rahul, Sumit and Vikash Vishnoi. Paris Olympics medallist Aman Sehrawat, who missed the trials and is currently training under TOPS in Russia, doesn't figure in the campers list. 'He will be added to the camp when he returns from his overseas training at the end of May,' said a WFI official.
In its guidelines for national camps issued on April 29, WFI has made it clear that only campers will be eligible to appear for selection trials.
'Only wrestlers attending the coaching camp will be eligible for trials, unless given special permission by WFI, particularly if they have won medals in a recent competition. Past performance alone will not qualify a wrestler to be given such permission.'
The absence of national camps has impacted training of wrestlers over the last two years as they trained mostly in their respective training centres with limited sparring partners available. Elite wrestlers planned their individual training overseas under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme but among the men's wrestlers, only Aman qualified for Paris Olympics.
Last week, wrestling coaches in a meeting with TOPS CEO NS Johal said that individual training programmes of wrestlers under the scheme should be scrutinised and their opinions should be sought. They also suggested that instead of one wrestler alone, three to four wrestlers should be included in such stints for better result.
