Wrestling national camps to start on February 9th

Men's and women's national wrestling camps will be held in Sonepat and Patiala on Monday from 9th February, announced the IOA-constituted ad-hoc committee.

With the Asian Olympics Qualifying and World Qualifying tournaments around the corner, the camps will begin almost immediately after the conclusion of the senior National Championships in Jaipur on February 5.

The ad-hoc panel, headed by Wushu Association of India chief Bhupender Singh Bajwa with former hockey player MM Somaya and ex-shuttler Manjusha Kanwar being the other members, is taking all the crucial decisions after the newly-elected Sanjay Singh-led Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was suspended by the Sports Ministry within three days of the polls.

"Following the conclusion of the Senior National Championships, the National Coaching Camp (NCC) will be conducted. The men's camp (Greco-Roman and free-style) will be stationed at SAI NRC Sonepat, while the women's camp will be held at SAI NSNIS, Patiala," said Bajwa in a statement.

The national camp will select medallists in 30 weight divisions across senior freestyle, Greco-Roman, and women's categories from the senior Nationals in Jaipur, which the Railway Sports Promotion Board is organising from February 2-5.

"The camp will extend until the 2024 Paris Olympics and its primary focus would be to train the grapplers for the upcoming Olympic Qualifying tournaments.

"These tournaments include the 2024 Asian Qualification Tournament set to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from April 19-21, and the 2024 World Qualification Tournament scheduled for Istanbul, Turkey, from May 9-12, 2024," added Bajwa.

Besides, the national camp will help prepare athletes for the Senior Asian Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from April 11-16.

While the ad-hoc panel is preparing for national championships and national camps, Sanjay Singh-led WFI has said that they will soon organise the national championships and insist that they neither recognise the suspension of their newly-elected body by the Sports Ministry nor the ad-hoc panel.

The national camps across age groups were disrupted for a major part of last year due to the agitation by top wrestlers in the country, including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat against former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for his alleged sexual harassment of women grapplers.