SSCB’s Pravesh in action against CHD’s Sumit, during the selection trials for the forthcoming Asian Wrestling Championship, organised by Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), at Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Saturday. March 15, 2025. File
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is set to move the National camp for men and women to Pune and Gandhinagar respectively, saying it was time to take the sport to other regions and curb incidents of “indiscipline”.
The National camps have been on hold since January 2023 when the country’s top wrestlers led a protest against the then WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who they accused of sexual harassment of women players.
The SAI centre in Bahalgarh, Sonepat has been a training centre and trials venue for the men’s wrestlers for long while the SAI centre in Lucknow has served as a venue for women’s camp and trials.
The wrestlers who finished in top-4 in each of the 30 categories during the trials for the Asian Championships, starting March 25 in Amman, Jordan, will be part of the camp.
“We will resume the National camp after the conclusion of the Asian Championship. For long, the activities have been shut. There was a discussion between WFI and government officials on possible venues and we felt moving the camp to Pune would serve the game better,” WFI President Sanjay Singh told PTI.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, he said, “There have been incidents of indiscipline at the Sonepat centre since it had proximity with many wrestlers’ houses and personal training centres.”
“It was brought to our notice that a few wrestlers flouted rules by not staying at the camp but since all activities were shut, we could not do anything. The Army Institute in Pune is known for maintaining discipline.
“Similarly there were apprehensions that Lucknow should not host training camp for women because the place is considered close to our former chief (Gonda). We want to avoid controversies and focus on sport, so we have moved it to SAI centre in Gandhinagar which has superb facilities.” The WFI would not exempt any wrestler from national camp.
Junior Nationals in Rajasthan
The WFI has also decided to conduct the junior National Championships in Kota, Rajasthan from April 20.
“The state association of Rajasthan had expressed interest in hosting the championships. That state has hosted Nationals only once before. We need to take sport to new regions to make it top sport in the country,” said a WFI official.
Dope-tainted wrestlers compete in IIS
It has come to light that a few wrestlers, who have been banned by NADA, trained at and competed in a competition at Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in Bellary, Karnataka.
Arjun, Pawan Kumar and Anand, banned for doping violations, were part of the training cam held at IIS in January and February and the world governing body UWW has also been made aware of the matter.
“We did not know (about their doping violations). The NADA team was present there. They should have told us. This was a practice competition so obviously the agenda is different. If positive dope tests are not made public, how would one know,” said IIS President Manisha Malhotra.
A WFI official said the federation was not involved in the conduct of training camp or competition.
“We were not aware of any such event. If we were involved we would have certainly informed the organisers that so and so wrestler is ineligible,” the official said.
Published – March 21, 2025 01:40 am IST
