IOA reaches out to help wrestlers get to Asian Games | More sports News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: In further de-escalation of tension between the Centre and the protesting wrestlers, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Friday approached the organisers of the upcoming Asian Games with a request to extend the ‘entry by name date’ of the Indian wrestling contingent by August 15.
This will enable the agitating grapplers to prepare properly for the selection trials for the multisport event, which is scheduled to be held in China’s Hangzhou city from September 23 to October 8.
TOI has reliably learnt the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), headed by India’s Randhir Singh as its acting president, has been requested by IOA to jointly conduct the trials for the Asiad and the World Championships — to be held in Belgrade from Sept 16 to 24, which will act as a qualifier for the Paris Olympics 2024 – by August 10 instead of the proposed date of June 30.
According to sources, a letter to this effect has been written by IOA’s joint secretary and acting CEO, Kalyan Chaubey, to OCA’s director general (DG), Husain Al Musallam. “…six prominent wrestling athletes namely Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshee Malikkh, Satyawart Kadian, Sangeeta Phogat and Jeetender Kumar have requested to conduct the selection trials for the Asian Games and World Championships after August 10. In view of the above, we request for your kind help to consider extending the entry by name date of the Indian wrestling team to August 15, 2023 so that these wrestlers may also get a chance to participate in the selection trials of the Asian Games. We look forward to your favourable consideration as a special case,” said the letter.
Last week, union sports minister Anurag Thakur had stated that the doors were open for the protesting wrestlers to participate in the selection trials because their names figure in the long list of Asiad probables. The minister had informed that all national sports federations (NSFs) are looking to finalise the contingent well before the July 15 deadline.
The IOA’s two-member adhoc committee, which has been tasked to run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI, had originally planned to hold the trials by the end of this month in the national capital to finalise the Indian wrestling squad by June 30. Sources said the sports ministry received a request from the protesting wrestlers stating they would like to appear for the Asiad trials and needed time to train. Therefore, they requested an extension in the trial dates for wrestling.
The ministry communicated the same to the ad-hoc committee, which in turn informed the IOA about the request.
The IOA on Friday wrote to the OCA, requesting to extend the date of trials only for wrestling.
When TOI contacted Randhir Singh for his comments, he said the OCA will look into the request as and when it receives it from the IOA.
“Let us first receive the request, we will then take a decision.”
It’s been learnt that the decision to extend the date of trials was taken by the ad-hoc committee to ensure that the selection meet is held under the supervision of the new Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) executive council.
WFI will go to polls on July 6 and the results will be declared the same day. Meanwhile, some protesting wrestlers have expressed their wish to return to training at the SAI’s regional centre in Sonepat. It’s been learnt that Bajrang visited the centre last Sunday and held a meeting with its regional director Lalita Sharma with a request to allow him and his wife Sangeeta to train at one of the main wrestling halls. Bajrang and Sangeeta haven’t shown up since then but are expected to start training from this weekend.