The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) mulling over holding fresh trials for Olympic Qualifiers. The governing body may take this step in the wake of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics and Asian and World Qualifiers to next year said its secretary V.N. Prasood, reported by the Hindu.
He reportedly said that WFI will either hold fresh trials or may advance the 2020 National championships to complete the selection process ahead of the qualification tournaments.
The United World Wrestling (UWW) on Monday announced the new dates for the qualifiers. The Asian and World qualification tournaments will be held from March 26 to 29 in Xi’an, China and April 30 to May 3 in Sofia, Bulgaria respectively.
He said that the postponement of the Tokyo Games has disrupted their plans. WFI’s policy is to select the best and deserving wrestlers for the Olympics. But now with a year to go, the Indian federation wants to give everyone a fair chance. Keeping this in mind, we may conduct fresh trials. And if the decision is not acceptable to the wrestler another possibility will be that WFI might hold fresh National championships this year.
India has qualified in four weight classes for the Olympics thanks to Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg), Deepak Punia (86kg) and Vinesh Phogat (53kg) medal-winning performance at the 2019 World Championships.
The deferment of the Tokyo-bound extravaganza has come as a blessing for 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Narsingh Yadav, who will complete his four-year ban this July.
WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar had told WrestlingTV that they are open to give Yadav a chance to prove his mettle.
