“Expecting India to win four medals in Tokyo Olympics 2020,” says Wrestling Federation Chief

The national capital is all set to host the Asian Wrestling Championship from February 18 to 23 and the game’s governing body is hoping that the hosts will win at least five medals this time around.

In the 2019 edition which was hosted in China, the only Indian wrestler to return home with a gold was Bajrang Punia but this time, the advantage of playing at home has made the federation optimistic about more medals.

“We have high expectations from Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik, Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia to win gold medals in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships,” WFI Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said according to Wrestling TV.

“We also expect India to win four medals in in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games wrestling competition,” added Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Most of the Indian wrestlers enjoyed a good run in 2019. While Bajrang and Ravi Dahiya won a bronze each at the UWW World Championships 2019 and a gold each at the Rome Ranking series played in January 2020, Vinesh Phogat has already booked a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. Deepak Punia, however, was eliminated in the first round at Rome despite securing a silver in the World Championships last year.

The WFI chief also said that India are more than willing to host the Asian Olympic Qualifiers if they are moved out of the Coronavirus-inflicted China. “Due to Coronavirus, the Asian Olympic Qualifiers which were earlier scheduled to take place in China from March 27-29, will be moved out to some other country. Given a chance, we will host the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in India,” he said.

He also said that there will be no cancellation of any India

vs Pakistan encounter, but the Indian High Commission in Islamabad has not

cleared the visa applications of the Pakistan wrestlers yet.

As per reports, if visas are not provided to all the

participating countries for the Asian Championship 2020, India will not be

allowed to host the Olympic qualifier.