No Exemptions For World Championship Wrestling Selection

Trials to be held on August 25-26 in Patiala

Updated on: 14 August 2023 12:08 pm

An image from the Asian Games 2023 trials. No exemptions will be made for the World Ch'ships selection

At last, something without drama in Indian wrestling. On Monday, the ad-hoc panel running the sport said that no one is exempt from the wrestling World Championships trials, which will be held on August 25-26 in Patiala.

Belgrade will host the Worlds from September 16-24. It will be the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A few days ago, the wrestling fraternity was furious when Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat were exempted from the Asian Games trials.

Under the criteria mentioned for "shortlisting of athletes" for the World Championships, the ad-hoc panel said, "Medallists and participants of all international/ ranking/ Asian/ World Championships/ Commonwealth Games held in 2022 and 2023 and participants of 2022 Tokyo Olympic Games (will have to appear for trials in order to get selected for the Worlds)."

August 16 is the last date for sending entries for the Worlds. However, in light of the delay in the WFI (Wrestling Federation of India) elections, United World Wrestling (UWW) accepted India’s request to extend the deadline.

"Since this is an Olympic qualification tournament, we couldn't have delayed the trials any further as India's entries would have been rejected," the ad-hoc panel head Bhupender Singh Bajwa told PTI.

The ad-hoc panel had decided to hold the trials on August 10. But then the panel decided the newly-elected WFI governing body should take a decision on the trials, as it was supposed to get elected on August 12.

But then the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the elections and adjourned the matter to August 28. This left the ad-hoc panel no option but to go ahead with the trials.

Meanwhile, Punia and Phogat have not decided about their participation in the trials, since the Hangzhou Asian Games are just a few weeks away (September 23).

The ad-hoc panel's statement about the trials said, "The weigh-in would be held on same dates of the Selection Trials at 7.00 hrs. at SAI Centre, NIS, Patiala and two kg weight tolerance will be allowed in all weight categories.”