Wrestling: Decision on final trial for Paris Olympics after Istanbul qualifier, says WFI president

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will wait until the last qualifying event, the World Olympic Games qualifier in Istanbul from May 9 to 12, before deciding whether to hold trials to pick the Indian team for the Paris Olympics.

The WFI president, Sanjay Singh, said since the quota places belonged to the country, the selection committee would decide whether to let the quota place winners compete in the Olympics or conduct a trial involving the challengers before naming the team.

“After the Istanbul event, we will decide whether to conduct trials for the Olympics. The selection committee will decide that. The selection rule says we should have trials. Hope trials will be conducted before sending the team,” Sanjay told Sportstar on the sidelines of the Federation Cup here.

As per the rules published on the WFI website, “…the selection committee of WFI will have the discretion to hold a trial for participation in the Olympic Games. However, it will not be compulsory that all the quota earned wrestlers will be asked to appear in trials.”

So far, four Indian women, including three in the recently concluded Asian Olympic qualifier in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, have qualified for the Olympics.

Sanjay was disappointed with India’s performance in Bishkek. “The results should have been much better in the Asian Olympic qualifier. The reason for that is after the trials on March 10 and 11, there should have been a camp which did not happen. The main reason why Greco Roman wrestlers fared so poorly is, whereas freestyle wrestlers get to train in different akharas, there are not too many Greco Roman wrestlers in akharas. So they don’t get good sparring. A camp provides them good sparring opportunities.”

The WFI selection panel will meet on Monday to decide whether to have another trial prior to the Istanbul qualifier.

The WFI head, who met United World Wrestling (UWW) president Nenad Lalovic in Bishkek, said, “Lalovic was concerned that the Indian wrestlers’ performance has gone down recently, but he also understood why it happened. He accepted that because of politics (in recent times), India’s performance has gone down a little bit.”