IOA ad-hoc panel fails to set date for Asian Games trials

While the OCA set a deadline of July 15 for other nations to enter their athletes' names for the Games, the continental organisation has extended the deadline to transmit the Indian wrestling squad's data till July 22.

One of the members of the ad hoc committee, Ashok Garg, told PTI after the meeting, "We have urged the IOA president (PT Usha) to utilise her power to encourage the OCA to extend the date beyond July 22.

“Nothing else came out of the meeting. We are hopeful of a positive response from the OCA. We spoke to Mr (Bhupender Singh) Bajwa (ad-hoc panel head) and he said he will write the letter to Usha," he said.

“In the event, the OCA does not extend the deadline, then we will have a meeting tomorrow or maybe the day after to decide the future course of action," he said.

On the other hand, the wrestling community isn't too happy with the kind of special treatment these six protesting wrestlers are getting. “It is clear that IOA is not thinking about the entire wrestling community but just the six wrestlers. It is clear that ad-hoc panel is being issued directions and it is not working independently," said a coach, who did not wish to be named.

“They just want to help these six people but what about hundreds of wrestlers, who are awaiting trials? Isn’t it injustice to them, they have set weight and are left in limbo"

“This ad-hoc panel is a sham. The two coaches in the panel are not behaving in an impartial manner. Never ever in my 20-year career, I have seen such uncertainty around trials," the coach added.