CHENNAI: Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) are treading very thin water. In what could be another embarrassing episode for Indian wrestling, both parties could face the ire of a national champion who has been given the short end of the stick in a supposed trade-off between the star grappler and a teammate.
When the Indian squad for the Asian Wrestling Championships, to be held in New Delhi from Wednesday to May 14, was first announced, Sakshi’s name was in the 58kg weight category. Few days later, when the draw for the championships was announced, her name figured in the 60kg segment as she was overweight. This was decided after an agreement between the 24-year-old and her teammate in 60kg, Sarita. The federation, too, agreed to the same.
“The trials happened a month after Sakshi’s marriage to fellow wrestler Satyawart Kadian, who is himself in the contingent for the Asian meet, and she had requested her coach to list her name for trials under the 60kg category, as she felt she couldn’t bring down her weight so much in such less time. However, due to some miscommunications, that didn’t happen. A day before the trials, she came to me and complained that her registration had gone wrong, and that she wanted to take part in the higher weight trials. So I met with her and Sarita, the incumbent in 60kg, and asked them to see if an exchange could happen.
Since Sakshi is an Olympic medallist, we made an exception. Sarita will find it easier to lose weight and come under the 58kg bracket, and they agreed,” WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh told Express on Tuesday.
Apparently, United World Wrestling, the world wrestling body, has accepted WFI’s request to allow Sakshi to fight in the new weight category. But this agreement has apparently left the third wrestler, also the forgotten one, unhappy. Manju Kumari, the national champion in 58kg, did end up fighting Sakshi in the trials, and lost 10-0 via technical knockout on May 5.
Yet the former feels she should not have been ignored. Though the federation said the agreement was mutual, if experts are to be believed, Manju’s argument in court will hold more weight because the selection has been done without trials.
It has to be noted that the Indian contingent will be without the likes of other stars like Yogeshwar Dutt, Sushil Kumar and the famous Phogat sisters — Geeta and Babita.
At last year’s edition in Bangkok, Thailand, the wrestlers came back with a haul of nine medals, which included one gold, three silver and five bronze medals. Sandeep (mens’ 57kg freestyle) was the lone Indian to clinch the yellow metal there.
raviiyer@newindianexpress.com