Commonwealth Games champion former India wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav was elected as the chairman of the Athletes' Commission of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Wednesday. (More Sports News)
This position was mandated by the United World Wrestling (UWW), the body that governs amateur wrestling worldwide, at the time of revoking the suspension on WFI.
Yadav won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 74 kg category at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. He also qualified for the Rio Olympics in 2016 but was disqualified after he tested positive for anabolic steroids. He was banned for four years from competitive wrestling even though he maintained that his positive test was an act of sabotage.
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WFI president Sanjay Singh gave details about the elections where Yadav was voted the chairman.
"Today, Athlete Commission of India election took place. Eight candidates who files nominations were, Bharti Baghel from Uttar Pradesh, Khushbu S Pawar, from Gujarat, Narsingh Yadav from Maharashtra, Nikki from Haryana, Rajiv Ranjan from Jharkhand, Sahil from Delhi, Smitha from Kerala, and Shweta Dubey from West Bengal," Singh said.
"In the election, voting was done and Rajiv Ranjan emerged as the sole loser and rest seven have won. There were total 50 voters - two wrestlers each state," he added.
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After getting banned by the UWW in August last year for not holding the elections on time, WFI is now trying to bring things. The suspension of the body was lifted earlier this year on written guarantee that protesting wrestlers will not be discriminated against.
"The WFI has to immediately provide UWW with written guarantees that all wrestlers will be considered for participation without any discrimination in all WFI events, in particular trials for the Olympic Games and any other major national and international events. This non-discrimination includes the three athletes who protested against alleged wrongdoings by the former President," a statement from the world body had noted.
