Wrestling national camp likely from August 1st week

NEW DELHI: August first week has been earmarked as a potential time for wrestlers to assemble for their national camps after the COVID-19 hiatus. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is working in tandem with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to plan a date for the resumption of training.

SAI has taken up the responsibility of organizing national camps for individual sports after the Sports Ministry derecognized 57 National Sports Federations (NSFs) in line with the Delhi High Court order in June.

The camp will initially be held for Olympic weight categories and would also begin only after necessary quarantine protocols are fulfilled.

"A number of wrestlers are training on their own right now and they are of the opinion that let this month go by. So we will probably plan for a camp in the first week of August," WFI Secretary-General Vinod Tomar told IANS on Wednesday.

"Initially it will be focused on the Olympic weights. As and when the situation improves, we will open up other weight categories too."

The men's camp is set to be held in Sonipat, Haryana while that of women will be in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The top wrestlers who have qualified for the Olympics will be required to attend the camp.

While most grapplers have been doing individual training at home, Asian Games gold medallist Bajrang Punia has been training with his training partner Jitender at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Karnataka, before which they were training in Sonipat.

Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, and 2019 World Championships medallists Deepak Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya have been training at the Chattrasal stadium in New Delhi.

With the only competitive event being the World Championships that is now provisionally scheduled to be held from December 12 to 20 in Belgrade, Serbia, the WFI knows that there is no need to rush with a national camp.

"We have time till December so there is no need to rush with a camp. Even (World Championship) is not sure whether it will be held in December or not," said Tomar. (IANS)

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