Geeta Phogat, Satyawart Kadian among 15 wrestlers who could miss Asian Games 2018 after skipping national camp

The absence of some of the country’s top wrestlers from the national camp has drawn the ire of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which has decided to discipline 15 national grapplers due to a breach of discipline, according to media reports. According to a report published in The Telegraph, the list includes some big names like the Phogat sisters, Geeta, Babita, Ritu and Sangeeta. [caption id=“attachment_412809” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of India’s Geeta Phogat in action. Reuters[/caption] Geeta famously won the gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi — her triumph was immortalised in the Bollywood movie Dangal. Four years after the Delhi CWG, Babita also claimed a gold medal in Glasgow. The erring wrestlers will be prohibited from participating in the trials for the forthcoming Asian Games. While the Asiad is to be held in Jakarta in August this year, the trials were to be held right after the national camps end on 25 May. The Telegraph quoted WFI sources as saying that the wrestlers did not make it to the camps — the men’s camp has been on in Sonepat from 10 May while the women’s camp has been running in Lucknow — despite repeated reminders to turn up and were consequently slapped with show-cause notices on Wednesday. Another report in The Times of India added that while two-time Olympics medallist Sushil Kumar and Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik have also skipped the national camp, they reportedly took permission from the federation. Interestingly, Sakshi’s husband Satyawart Kadian, a silver medallist at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, is also among those disciplined by the WFI.