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Bajrang Punia: Bajrang Punia has expressed surprise at the decision to exempt Olympic quota winners from trials. He has written a post regarding this on X. Bajrang Punia has written that the new WAI committee agrees that the old committee’s policy of holding trials for Olympic quota winners was wrong. Poonia wrote that when women wrestlers were agitating, were people like Yogeshwar Dutt not alleging that women wrestlers were protesting because they did not want to give trial. Now this brother is saying that the best way is not to conduct trial. Bajrang Punia further wrote that when the Federation had nominated my name for the Asian Games, Yogeshwar ji was openly opposing me. Now after becoming a part of Sanjay Singh’s federation, he is saying that trials will not be conducted.
Exemption from trial
It is noteworthy that the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Tuesday exempted all the six Olympic quota winning wrestlers from the selection trials. But his form and fitness will be assessed in the upcoming ranking series tournament and practice camp in Hungary. WFI said that this is a decision taken in special circumstances and it should not be considered as a trend for the future. WFI also said that if any wrestler is found lacking in fitness, then the federation will think of an alternative through trials before July 8. The last date for sending entries is July 8.
India has six quotas
India has secured six quotas for the Paris Olympics, of which Aman Sehrawat (57 kg) is the only male wrestler. Vinesh Phogat (50 kg), Anand Panghal (53 kg), Anshu Malik (57 kg), Nisha Dahiya (68 kg) and Ritika Hooda (76 kg) have also qualified. The wrestlers had requested WFI not to conduct the trials. He said that there could be a risk of injury due to this. The selection committee headed by WFI chief Sanjay Singh accepted it. Sanjay Singh told PTI after the meeting that we discussed the issue and both the head coaches said that the trials would pose a risk of injury, which could adversely affect India’s medal hopes. For this reason we decided not to conduct the trial. The quota winners will participate in the UWW Ranking Series from June 6 to 9 in Budapest. After this, a practice camp will be organized from 10th to 21st June.
