By Nitin Srivastava
Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 23 (ANI): Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is confident that Indian wrestlers will bag four medals in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
“I am very hopeful that this time in Olympic we will bag four medals. Last time also so I had expected three medals, but due to the controversies and Vinesh getting injured it was our bad luck and second issue was Narsingh Yadav. But this year I am very hopeful and confident that our athletes will definitely get four medals,” Brij Bhushan told ANI.
The WFI president also informed that he has given a proposal to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to give them land for a wrestling field.
“I have proposed in front of Chief Minister to give us land for wrestling field and CM will take a call on it. I am sure that Olympic center will be built in Noida only,” said Brij Bhushan on the sidelines of the 65th national freestyle senior wrestling championship.
Brij Bhushan highlighted that organising a tournament like this amid the pandemic was a tedious task and pointed out how athletes’ performances have been affected due to lack of championships.
“It was a big challenge to organise this tournament. In the World Cup in which our wrestlers participated and won silver medals, I realised that due to no competitions our players were struggling and that impacted performance,” he said.
“We used to organise Greco-roman men’s freestyle women’s freestyle together but this time due to COVID-19 and keeping in mind the social distancing and hygiene we have segregated this tournament in three different parts,” he further said.
“Having around 1000 wrestlers at one place was not a good idea so that is why we divided this tournament into three parts which makes the number of the athletes one third, each and every athlete is in the hotel and one room is shared by only two athletes.
“Whatever are the norms and protocols for corona we are following them. We have tested our athletes for COVID-19, but overall it was a big challenge for us and we have accepted it,” he added. (ANI)