Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat have been exempted from the selection trials to choose the Indian wrestling team for the Asian Games 2023 to be held on July 22 and 23 at the Kedar Jadhav Hall in New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium.
The trials will be conducted in all 18 Olympic weight categories – six each for women’s and men’s freestyle and men’s Greco-Roman – which will be contested at the upcoming Asian Games. While the trials for the women’s and Greco-Roman wrestlers will be held on July 22, the next day is reserved for the men’s freestyle wrestling bouts.
However, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) ad-hoc committee, currently in charge of managing the day-to-day affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), said in a circular that it has already selected the wrestlers in men’s freestyle 65kg and women’s 53kg.
Though the circular didn’t name any wrestlers directly, IOA ad-hoc panel member Ashok Garg confirmed to PTI that Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are the two wrestlers who have been exempted from attending the trials.
The exemption means that the two wrestlers will get a direct entry to the Indian squad for the 2023 Asian Games, which is scheduled from September 23 to October 8 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia is India’s premier wrestler in the men’s 65kg category while Vinesh Phogat, a Commonwealth Games champion and world championships medallist, is the dominant grappler in the women’s 53kg division.
Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, along with four other wrestlers – Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik, Sangeeta Phogat, Satyawart Kadiyan and Jitender Kinha had earlier requested the IOA for more time, till August 10, to prepare for the trials, according to reports.
Vinesh Phogat was in Hungary last week to participate in the Budapest Ranking Series but was forced to pull out at the last minute due to illness. She is currently training abroad.
Bajrang Punia, meanwhile, is training in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart Kadiyan are in a training camp in the USA.
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