Trials for World Wrestling Championship on August 25-26, no exemption for Bajrang Punia
After weeks of ambiguity surrounding the selection process, the ad hoc tribunal declared on Monday that the trials for the wrestling World Championships will take place on August 25–26 in Patiala.
There was a significant uproar when Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat were exempted from the Asian Games trials, and the majority of the wrestling community criticised the ad hoc panel's choice. However, the ad hoc committee has not yet declared any wrestlers exempt from the trials for the World Championship, which will take place in Belgrade from September 16 to 24.
The ad-hoc panel specified the following criteria for "shortlisting of athletes" for the Worlds: "Medallists and participants of all international/ranking/ Asian/ World Championships/ Commonwealth Games held in 2022 and 2023 and participants of 2022 Tokyo Olympic Games (will have to appear for trials in order to get selected for the Worlds)." However, Bajrang and Vinesh have not yet decided whether they would participate in the World Championship trials since they believe the Hangzhou Asian Games, which begin on September 23, are only around the corner.
The 2024 Paris Olympics' opening round of qualification will take place at the World Championships.
Despite the fact that the time for filing submissions by name would expire on August 16 due to the uncertainty surrounding the WFI elections, United World Wrestling (UWW) has in principle agreed to India's request to extend the deadline.
Since this is an Olympic qualification competition, we were unable to postpone the trials further since India's entries would have been disqualified, according to Bhupender Singh Bajwa, the chair of the ad hoc panel.
The ad hoc panel initially intended to convene the proceedings on August 10 and notify the state association of it by August 3.
The panel ultimately determined, however, that the newly-elected WFI governing body should decide whether to conduct the trials because it would be elected on August 12 and would have plenty of time to complete the exercise and transmit the submissions to UWW.
A question mark hung over the wrestlers' participation in the Worlds after the Punjab and Haryana High Court postponed the eagerly anticipated WFI elections on the night of the elections (August 11) and moved the matter to August 28. This left the ad-hoc panel to make the crucial decision to hold the trials.
”The weigh-in would be held on the same dates of the Selection Trials at 7.00 hrs. at SAI Centre, NS NIS, Patiala and two kg weight tolerance will be allowed in all weight categories,” said the statement.
”Trials will be held in the following categories — Freestyle: 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 74kg, 79kg, 86kg, 92kg, 97kg and 125kg. Greco-roman — 55kg, 60kg, 63kg, 67kg, 72kg, 77kg, 82kg, 87kg, 97kg and 130kg. Women’s wrestling: 50kg, 53kg, 55Kgk, 57Kgk, 59Kgk, 62Kgk, 65Kgk, 68Kg, 72kg and & 76kg.”