Wrestling News: No Poland Open for Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia

India’s wrestling duo Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya cancelled their plans to participate at the Poland Open due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. The event was scheduled from November 4 to 8 in Warsaw. However, with the second wave of the pandemic in Europe they decided to stay put and continue training at the Chhatrasal Stadium. “We will not be travelling to Poland due to the rise in (COVID-19) cases,” Ravi Dahiya told WrestlingTV.

Both Dahiya and Punia have booked the Tokyo Olympics berth in 57kg and 86kg respectively. Dahiya believed that Poland Open would have been a good testing ground for them ahead of the possible world championships in December. However, with conditions worsening in Poland, especially in last seven days, he says, it was not to travel abroad.

“They were supposed to leave today (November 2). Everything was done, they had got our visas approved and the flight tickets were booked. However, we could not find any return flights. Moreover, due to the second wave many European countries are going under lockdown. They might get stranded if Poland also reinstates it, therefore the plan was dropped,” a source close to the wrestler said.

Poland registered over 1.26 lakh cases in the past week. This has taken their total to over 3.4 lakh cases so far. Due to this, it is possible that the central European country might reinstate partial or full lockdown.

UWW might cancel its November calender

United World Wrestling was scheduled to conduct four international events next month but they might get cancelled now. “No UWW events will happen as the situation is getting worse in Europe,” an official close to the development told WrestlingTV.

Meanwhile, UWW’s executive committee will meet on November 6 to assess the situation and take a final call on the fate of the world championship.