No Exemption for Vinesh Phogat in World Trials after injury, decides Ad-hoc panel
The IOA's wrestling ad hoc committee has agreed not to change the standards for the upcoming trials to choose the squad for the World Championships in Belgrade later this month. The squad selection trial for the Worlds, which begin on September 16, will take place in Patiala on August 25 and 26.
An ad-hoc committee member spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday: "The trials for the Worlds will be conducted in Patiala as per the schedule announced two days back in all 10 weight categories in men's freestyle, greco-roman, and women's wrestling." The Worlds trials and the withdrawal of Vinesh Phogat (53 kg) from the Hangzhou Asian Games owing to a knee injury raised concerns that the ad hoc tribunal would limit the exercise to four non-Olympic divisions.
In wrestling, there are ten weight categories—six Olympic and four non-Olympic—and the trials for the Asian Games in Hangzhou were held on July 22–23 in New Delhi for the Olympic weight divisions.
As they believed they wouldn't be able to recuperate from the gruelling nature of the July exercise, a number of wrestlers who had competed in the July trials had opposed the Worlds trials.
In order to accommodate Vinesh and Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia, who had been excluded from the July exercise because they wanted extra time to prepare after sitting in protest at Jantar Mantar, the exercise to complete two-set trials was done. Vinesh is out due to an injury, but Bajrang hasn't said anything about competing in the Worlds trials. This had led to rumours that just four non-Olympic classes will participate in the trials, instead of the entire six Olympic categories.
“All six wrestlers, including Bajrang, (who had protested at Jantar Mantar and had sought exemption from July trials) will get another opportunity to prove themselves. “So far, we haven’t received their entries. We are waiting. This is a fresh exercise and should not be linked to the previous exercise which was done to select the team for the Asian Games, ” the panel member said.