Antim Panghal to skip Asian Wrestling Championships trials after suffering back injury: Report

India’s Antim Panghal is set to skip trials for the upcoming Asian Wrestling Championships after reportedly suffering a back injury. Two-time U-20 world champion Panghal, who competes with ace grappler Vinesh Phogat in the 53kg category, has been exempted from the trials by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) due to a back injury caused by a fall in her house, according to a report on The Tribune.

The report further states that Panghal will fight the winner of the trials at a later date in order to prove her fitness.

“Antim is injured and has requested the federation to postpone her trial as she has barely trained for a month now. We have agreed but she has been asked to appear for a trial. She will be asked to fight the winner in her category,” a WFI source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Panghal has already secured her place in the Paris Olympics, having clinched the quota by winning bronze in last year’s World Championships in Belgrade in what was her senior Worlds debut. So far, she is the only Indian wrestler to have secured her berth in the Olympics that take place in the French capital in the months of July and August.

The trials for the Asian Championships, which takes place at Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek next month, and the continental qualifiers are set to take place in New Delhi on 10 and 11 March, and it remains to be seen if two-time World Championships bronze medallist Phogat and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia participate in the trials or not.

Phogat, Punia as well as Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik were some of the leading names in the wrestlers’ protest against former WFI president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who had been accused of sexually harassing several female grapplers.