Indian wrestlers to skip Rome Ranking Series ahead of Commonwealth Games

Express News Service

CHENNAI:  Indian wrestlers will not compete at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series scheduled to begin in Rome, Italy on Wednesday. The reason? All the selected wrestlers have to be in the country for the collection of their biometric information to process visas for the upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham, UK.

“The wrestlers have to be in the country for visa processing. We have given passports to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as the visas are expected to be processed this week,” Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), told this daily.

The wrestlers will now continue to camp at designated centres — women at SAI centre, Lucknow and men at SAI centre, Sonepat. “We don’t want to delay visa process so the WFI has decided to skip the Rome tournament,” added Tomar. The next event is the Grand Prix of Spain in Madrid from July 8 to 10. It will be followed by Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series in Tunis, Tunisia from July 14 to 17. The wrestling competition at the CWG will begin on August 5.

U-17 women create history
Meanwhile, the Indian women’s wrestling team created history by winning the U-17 Asian Championships title in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday. The women wrestlers from the country won medals in all the ten weight categories — eight gold, one silver and as many bronze — they competed at the ongoing championships. 

Full story: newindianexpress.com