A team of 13-member Indian wrestlers will represent the country in the upcoming Zagreb Open ranking series, the first world ranking tournament in Croatia.The announcement was made by the new Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee Bhupinder Singh Bajwa, who was recently appointed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to oversee the day-to-day conduct of wrestling affairs in the country. The wrestling competition is scheduled between January 10-14.
“Thanks to a timely intervention by the Ministry of External Affairs, the 25 Indians due to travel to Zagreb will complete the visa formalities on Wednesday. The team was facing difficulty in securing a visa appointment. However, the Ministry of External Affairs has helped the team in this regard,” Bajwa said in an official release.The Ad Hoc Committee Chairman said the Croatian Wrestling Federation Secretary-General Tin Bregovic had sent a letter of invitation for 13 wrestlers, 9 coaching and support staff, and three referees.
The 25-member Indian team
Men Freestyle: Aman (57kg), Yash (74kg), Deepak Punia (86kg), Vicky (97kg), and Sumit (125kg).
Greco-Roman: Gyanender (60kg), Neeraj (67kg), Vikas (77kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg), Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Naveen (130kg).
Women: Sonam (62kg) and Radhika (68kg)
Coaching and Support staff: Kuldeep Singh (Team leader & coach), Vinod Kumar, Sujeet, Shashi Bhushan Prasad, Manoj Kumar, Virender Singh and Alka Tomar (coaches); Vishal Kumar Rai (Physiotherapist) and Neeraj (Masseur).
Referees: Satya Dev Malik, Dinesh Dhondiba Gund and Sanjay Kumar
Senior national championships and national coaching camps
On Monday, the ad hoc committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) announced the National Coaching Camp (NCC) for senior wrestlers in preparation for the forthcoming Asian Olympics qualifying and World qualifying tournament.
The coaching camp will begin on February 9, 2024, and it will extend until the Paris Olympics in 2024. The primary focus of the NCC will be rigorous training for the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournaments.
