Indian wrestlers to be in action at the World Cup, starting December 12

India’s prime wrestlers can be again on the mat when worldwide wrestling returns with the Individual World Cup in Belgrade, Serbia from December 12-18. The world physique cancelled the World Championships after many prime nations determined to withdraw due to the pandemic. Instead, it was changed with the World Cup which would be the first alternative for worldwide wrestlers to test themselves.

Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, nonetheless, have determined to skip the event. Punia, who not too long ago obtained married, has charted out a month-long coaching programme within the US. He will practice at Cliff Keen Wrestling Club, underneath his coach Shako Bentinidis and Michigan head coach Sean Bormet. Bajrang will compete in FloWrestling meet in Austin, Texas on December 18, in an eight-man discipline.

“Almost one year has passed since he competed. It is important to participate in competitions, the results don’t matter,” mentioned Punia’s coach Bentinidis.

“We will have good sparring partners and we will slowly get into optimal mode. The main thing for coming to the US was the training process we have decided on and we will also get a good competition for Punia,” he mentioned.

Other Olympic hopefuls, together with Deepak Punia and Ravi Dahiya – each have certified for the Tokyo Olympics, may even wrestle of their first competitors in 9 months. It may properly develop into a actuality test for among the wrestlers when it comes to their preparations for the Tokyo Olympics and the qualifiers. Their coaching publish lockdown has been inconsistent, and most of them most popular particular person coaching with their companions than nationwide camps. One of the explanations being sparring not allowed in camps — a part of the usual working procedures for wrestling camps as a consequence of COVID.

The camps due to this fact began late. While the boys’s freestyle and Greco Roman camp started in September, the vast majority of the ladies wrestlers nonetheless selected to coach at residence and never take the chance through the pandemic. The girls’s camp lastly began in Lucknow however may run solely three weeks earlier than the Diwali break. They selected to not return after the pageant and lock themselves for one more 14-day quarantine that might be very important for his or her coaching for the worldwide meet.

“I have not seen them for one month now, though I have been helping them with training over the phone,” says girls’s group head coach Kuldeep Malik.

“Whatever facilities they have in their nearby centres they are using it. The competition will tell us where we stand,” he mentioned.

Greco Roman nationwide coach Hargobind Singh says since solely a restricted variety of wrestlers had been a part of the nationwide camp, a few of them had been fully coaching on their very own. “We had camp for three Olympic weight divisions only out of six because of regulations. The rest of them were training at home. It is difficult to get a training partner in Greco Roman unless you are in national camp. So they were managing somehow,” says Hargobind.

Even because the wrestlers skilled in centres near their houses, a lot of them had been contaminated. Divya Kakran, Gurpreet Singh (82kg) and Sachin Rana (63kg) examined positive after the Diwali break and needed to withdraw from the World Cup. Narsingh Pancham Yadav additionally examined positive on Nov 28 however a second test every week later discovered him unfavourable. Yadav (74kg) can be competing in his first worldwide event after serving a four-year doping ban. Before the current spate of positive circumstances, Vinesh Phogat, Deepak Punia and Rahul Aware had additionally examined positive for COVID.

Only 4 Indian wrestlers have certified for the Tokyo Olympics to date. With the Asian and World qualifiers scheduled subsequent yr, there can be a number of alternatives to seize.