Indian wrestlers are all set for their first major hurdle of the year as they face the best in the continent at the Asian Wrestling Championships in a jam-packed calendar.
File photo of Bajrang Punia (in blue). AFP
Indian star wrestlers are all set for their first major challenge of the year as they face the best of the continent at the Asian Wrestling Championships from 19 April in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Don’t underestimate “best of Asia” as the continent homes wrestling powerhouses in Iran, Kazakhstan, and Japan among others, whose grapplers have been arch-nemesis to some of the biggest names in Indian wrestling.
Indian grapplers’ task will be further cut out as they head into the competition without defending champion Vinesh Phogat (57kg), who had opted out of the event’s trials in March over fitness concerns.
The event, which started on Monday, saw Indian Greco Roman wrestlers (men-only) compete on the opening day. Indian wrestlers opened their account as Sunil Kumar, Arjun Halakurki, and Neeraj grabbed bronze in the 87kg, 55kg and 63 kg categories respectively.
Among others, Sajan lost his 72kg bronze medal bout while Harpreet Singh reached the quarter-finals of the 82kg category. In the 130kg category, Prem lost out in the opening round. Two other category wrestlers were yet to compete.
As far as freestyle events are concerned, women’s are slated on 21-22 April (in 50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62, 65, 68, 76 kg categories) while the men will compete on 23-24 April (in 57, 61, 65, 70, 74, 79, 86, 92, 97 and 125 kg categories).
Star attraction
The star attraction among freestyle wrestlers are Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya, bronze winner Bajrang Punia and 2019 World Championship silver medallist Deepak Punia. Eyes are also firm on 2021 Asian champion Anshu Malik in the absence of Phogat.
Leading to the event, Bajrang’s participation was the talking point as the 28-year-old hasn’t competed since his Olympic bronze medal-winning bout last year owing to a knee injury. Further doubts crept in when the poster boy of Indian wrestling didn’t just struggle to put a dominant display at the trials but also revealed to the media that a lack of a physiotherapist has hindered his quick recovery.
Shedding light on the matter while giving insight on wrestlers’ preparations, WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar told Firstpost that they are not putting their star grapplers under any risk as they all cleared the fitness test prior to their departure to Ulaanbaatar.
“We have a strong team in place for Asian Championship and stronger preparations have boosted our chances of performing better than last year,” Tomar said. “We haven’t risked any of our wrestlers for the competition as they all cleared the fitness test before leaving. We have the confidence in Bajrang, Ravi, and Deepak in the freestyle to go all the way in the event.”
Eye on future
Despite Phogat’s absence, WFI still has high expectations from their budding women’s wrestlers, who are part of their long-term goal pertaining to 2028 Olympics.
“We have a very strong group of young women wrestlers in the likes of Anshu, Sarita among others and naturally the expectation of them is to shine in Mongolia. In fact, the current squad of wrestlers is also part of our long-term goal, envisioned by president Brij Bhushan Singh, that aims at having our girls qualify for all the six categories of freestyle by 2028 Olympics,” the WFI official said.
However, before thinking long-term, there’s a busy year waiting for them at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Championship; lined up from August onwards. This leaves the grapplers to be in better shape for a hectic year and will require some high-quality exposure before they set their foot on the mat of these premium competitions.
WFI has already chalked out a plan for the season with a long-exposure trip in Europe for all the wrestlers, who will qualify through trials in May, leading to the CWG in Birmingham in August. The camp will also include wrestlers who are participating at the Worlds in the non-Olympic categories.
“Our senior wrestlers need to remain in good shape and in a competitive mindset for a season that will see them compete in CWG, Asiad and World Championships one after the other. And that’s why we have planned a long exposure trip to Europe that will see them have various camps in different countries and are scheduled prior to international competitions there.
“First week of June, they will camp in Kazakhstan ahead of a ranking series tournament (Bolat Turlykhanov Cup in Almaty – 2 to 5 June), and then the camp will shift to Italy, where they will train and participate in two tournaments including third-ranking series tournament (Matteo Pellicone in Rome — 22 to 25 June).
“Following that the team will train in Latvia as well before competing in Spain Grand Prix in Madrid (8-10 July) and will also participate in a tournament in Poland ( Poland Open — 20 to 24 July). They will briefly come back to India before going to the UK for CWG (where wrestling events are scheduled on 5-6 August),” Tomar revealed.
WFI is also planning on an exposure trip in China or Kazakhstan ahead of the Asian Games.
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