Wrestlers Deepak Punia, Antim Panghal picked for Asian Championships after Sports Ministry lifts WFI ban

World Championships medallists Deepak Punia and Antim Panghal were among 30 Indian wrestlers named on Saturday for the Senior Asian Championships to be held in Amman, Jordan, from March 25-30.

The selection trials were overseen by the selection committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), including president Sanjay Singh, vice president Jai Prakash, treasurer SP Deshwal and Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt.

This was the first selection trial held under the purview of WFI since its ban was recently revoked by the Sports Ministry .

Ten wrestlers each were picked in the men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman, as well as women’s categories during the selection trials.

Punia, who won a silver in 2019 World Championships and gold in 2022 Commonwealth Games, has, however, moved from 86kg to 92kg while Vishal Kaliraman also pushed himself up from 65kg to 70kg. Panghal (53kg) and Reetika (86kg) expectedly won their trials.

The WFI said it extended invitation to top wrestlers from across the country to participate in the trials “ensuring a highly competitive and transparent selection process”.

“However, a few notable wrestlers, including (Paris Olympics medallist) Aman Sehrawat, were unable to participate due to injuries,” the WFI said.

The selected wrestlers:

Men’s Freestyle: Chirag (57kg), Udit (61kg), Sujit (65kg), Vishal Kaliraman (70kg), Jaideep (74kg), Chandermohan (79kg), Mukul Dahiya (86kg), Deepak Punia (92kg), Jointy Kumar (97kg) and Dinesh (125kg).

Men’s Greco-Roman: Nitin (55kg), Sumit (60kg), Umesh (63kg), Neeraj (67kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg), Sagar (77kg), Rahul (82kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg), Nitesh (97kg) and Prem (130kg).

Women’s Wrestling: Ankush (50kg), Antim (53kg), Nishu (55kg), Neha Sharma (57kg), Muskan (59kg), Manisha (62kg), Monika (65kg), Mansi Lathar (68kg), Jyoti Berwal (72kg) and Reetika (76kg).

With agency inputs