 "Narsingh Yadav elected chairman of WFI's athletes commission")
Narsingh Yadav was elected as chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) Athletes Commission on Wednesday. The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist was appointed in the position as part of mandate by the sport’s governing body (UWW).
A total of eight members were in contention to fill up the seven spots in the athletes commission. After polling, conducted on a ballot paper, seven individuals chose Narsingh as the chairman of the commission.
Narsingh had grabbed headlines ahead of the 2016 Olympics. Sushil Kumar, a two-time Olympic medallist, who missed qualification due to an injury, requested for a trial bout against the Games-bound wrestler.
Sushil moved the Delhi High Court and only after his appeal was rejected, it was confirmed that Narsingh would go to Rio Olympics.
However, in a surprise turn of events, Narsingh failed two dope tests ahead of the Games and was banned for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport even though the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had cleared him on the plea that his failed test was the result of sabotage.
The CAS decision came a day before his opening bout, forcing him to leave host city Rio de Janeiro without taking the mat. The ban ended in July 2020 and he has maintained that the entire episode was a case of sabotage.
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More ShortsThe other elected members of the athletes commission were Sahil (Delhi), Smitha AS (Kerala), Bharti Bhaghei (UP), Khushboo S Pawar (Gujarat), Nikki (Haryana), and Sweta Dubey (Bengal).
United World Wrestling, while lifting WFI’s suspension, had stated that the move was subject to the Sanjay Singh-led national federation constituting an athletes’ commission to resolve the grievances of the grapplers.
Six top wrestlers, including Olympic Games medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Asian Games gold-medallist Vinesh Phogat have been protesting against then WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, demanding his arrest while accusing him of sexually harassing women wrestlers.
The Sports Ministry had suspended the WFI and instituted an IOA ad-hoc committee to manage the day-to-day functioning of the federation.
UWW, too, placed the WFI under provisional suspension on 23 August after the Indian body failed to hold fresh elections.
But after the elections were held in December and Sanjay Singh, a close aide of Brij Bhushan was elected president, he wrote to UWW to lift the suspension.
The UWW Bureau revoked the ban in February, with the pre-condition that the WFI has to constitute its athletes’ commission before 1 July, 2024.
It had mandated that the commission should have active or retired athletes for no longer than four years.
The WFI had also immediately provided UWW with a written guarantee that all the wrestlers, including those who protested, would be considered for participation in competitions, in particular the trials for the Olympic Games and any other major national and international event.
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