NEW DELHI: A part of the wrestlers’ original protest in January, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya has broken ranks with the group agitating against Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) sidelined president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and has decided to focus on his wrestling career by confirming his participation in the 3rd Ranking Series event in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek from June 1 to 4.
This will be the first international competition for Dahiya in more than 10 months after his gold-winning effort in the men’s freestyle 57kg category at the Birmingham CWG back in August 2022. Dahiya will compete in a new weight category – 61kg – which will also feature two other Indians — Aman and Pankaj.
Dahiya was one of the leading faces protesting against the WFI chief when the wrestlers had originally started their sit-in on January 18 at Jantar Mantar demanding Singh’s arrest, accused of sexually harassing seven female wrestlers, including a minor.
This time, however, Dahiya had been conspicuous by his absence. He had initially tweeted in favour of wrestlers and had even posted a video on his social media handles supporting the second round of protest, which entered its 32nd day on Wednesday. Since then, he has maintained steadfast silence on the issue and has largely focused on recuperating from his knee injury at the Chhatrasal stadium here.
Similarly, several other wrestlers who were part of the original protest, have returned to the competition arena to focus on the upcoming selection trials for the Asian Games and later for Paris Olympics qualifiers. These include Deepak Punia, Anshu Malik, Sarita Mor and Sonam Malik.
The Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) two-member ad-hoc committee, tasked with running of the WFI and holding elections to its new executive council (EC), has also identified wrestlers to replace the protesting trio of Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshee Malikkh in the Indian contingent for Bishkek other international competitions.
Olympic medallists Bajrang and Sakshee and reigning Asian Games and CWG champion Vinesh haven’t been participating in any domestic and international tournaments since the launch of their protest in January, and even skipped the selection trial meets.
Realising that the trio’s career has taken a backseat owing to the current standoff, the ad-hoc committee named Anuj Kumar (65kg) in Bajrang’s category. Vinesh and Sakshee were replaced with Pooja (53kg) and Sonam (62kg), respectively, for the Bishkek meet. The contingent will comprise 46 members, including 11 freestyle, 10 greco-roman and nine women wrestlers.
“The competition will help wrestlers get crucial ranking points that are important for seeding at major competitions like the World wrestling championships that will be held in September this year. The Worlds will also be an Olympic Qualifier (for Paris Games), and the seeding earned through ranking points will play an important role,” said a statement by the ad-hoc committee led by Bhupinder Singh Bajwa.
Bajrang, Vinesh to be dropped from TOPS
It’s been learnt that both Bajrang and Vinesh are expected to be dropped from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for their prolonged absence from the competition arena owing to the protest.
Through TOPS, the government extends support to athletes identified for the future Olympic and Paralympic Games, including foreign training, international competition, equipment and coaching camp besides monthly stipend of Rs. 50,000 for each athlete.
Both Bajrang and Vinesh are part of the core group of athletes in TOPS but their refusal to participate in any domestic or international competitions till the time Singh is arrested has forced the authorities to contemplate stopping the financial grant extended to them.
The wrestlers don’t see themselves participating at the Hangzhou Asian Games since they haven’t been training for close to five months.
Also, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) was recently left infuriated after both Bajrang and Vinesh refused to travel to training trips in Kyrgyzstan and Poland respectively, despite the TOPS division clearing their proposals within a week.
