Trials for World Wrestling Championships on 25-26 August in Patiala; no exemptions

The trials for the wrestling World Championships will be held on 25-26 August in Patiala, the ad-hoc panel announced on Monday, ending weeks of uncertainty around the selection competition. The exemption given to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat from the Asian Games trials had created a huge furore with the majority of the wrestling fraternity criticising the decision taken by the ad-hoc panel. However, the ad-hoc panel has not announced an exemption for any wrestler for the trials World Championship, set to be held in Belgrade from 16-24 September. In the criteria mentioned for “shortlisting of athletes” for the Worlds, the ad-hoc panel said, “Medallists and participants of all international/ ranking/ Asian/ World Championships/ Commonwealth Games held in 2022 and 2023 and participants of 2022 Tokyo Olympic Games (will have to appear for trials in order to get selected for the Worlds).” Bajrang and Vinesh, have, however, not yet made up their mind on appearing in the trials for the Worlds as they feel the Hangzhou Asian Games, starting September 23, are very close. The World Championships will serve as the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The dates for sending entries by names will close on August 16 but United World Wrestling (UWW) has in principle accepted India’s request to extend the deadline because of the uncertainty surrounding the WFI elections. “Since this is an Olympic qualification tournament, we couldn’t have delayed the trials any further as India’s entries would have been rejected,” the ad-hoc panel head Bhupender Singh Bajwa told PTI. Initially, the ad-hoc panel had decided to hold the trials on August 10 and send a notification regarding that to the state association before 3 August. But, later, the panel decided the newly-elected WFI governing body should take a call on the trials as it would get elected on 12 August, leaving the elected governing body members plenty of time to conduct the exercise and send the entries to UWW. But after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the much-anticipated WFI elections on the eve of the polls (11 August) and adjourned the matter to August 28, a question mark hung over the wrestlers’ participation in the Worlds, leaving the ad-hoc panel to take the important decision to conduct the trials. “The weigh-in would be held on the same dates of the Selection Trials at 7.00 hrs. at SAI Centre, NS NIS, Patiala and two kg weight tolerance will be allowed in all weight categories,” said the statement. “Trials will be held in the following categories — Freestyle: 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 74kg, 79kg, 86kg, 92kg, 97kg and 125kg. Greco-roman — 55kg, 60kg, 63kg, 67kg, 72kg, 77kg, 82kg, 87kg, 97kg and 130kg. Women’s wrestling: 50kg, 53kg, 55Kgk, 57Kgk, 59Kgk, 62Kgk, 65Kgk, 68Kg, 72kg and & 76kg.” Format of trials The ad-hoc panel said that, if less than eight wrestlers are eligible for trials in a weight category, the Nordic system will be applied. Under the Nordic system, the wrestlers fight each other in a round-robin format. After the matches are over, the wrestlers are ranked according to the number of victories. The top three win medals. “If eight or more wrestlers are eligible in a weight category, a direct elimination format will be conducted,” said the ad-hoc panel statement. The panel also said that it may apply a “seeding system” during the trials.