Eight Indian wrestlers, who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, will be trained in Poland. According to sources from the Wrestling Federation of India, the visa process is currently underway in this direction. Until the visa is ready, these players will continue to train as per their schedule.
This time four freestyle and same number of women wrestlers have qualified for the Olympics, in which Ravi Dahiya will compete in 57 kg, Bajrang Punia 65 kg, Deepak Poonia 86 kg and Sumit Malik in 125 kg freestyle category while the women Seema will compete in 50 kg, Vinesh in 53 kg, Anshu Malik in 57 kg and Sonam Malik in 62 kg category. Currently, Bajrang Poonia is under coaching from his Georgian coach Shako at Bellary (Karnataka). Jugalbandi of these two has been effective in the last two years.
Both of them are currently seeking two foreign players as sparring partners. Each wrestler from Cuba and Georgia will come to practice with Bajrang after the visa formalities are completed. JSW in Bellary sponsors Bajrang.
At the same time, preparation of Vinesh Phogat, who was injured during the Rio Olympics, is quite good this time. She is currently training in Hungary with a Hungarian coach Wollar Akos for a long time. Her sister Priyanka Phogat, a silver medalist in Asian Championship, is working as her sparring partner in Hungary. A team is also preparing Vinesh for the Olympics in Hungary.
57 kg woman wrestler Anshu Malik is practising hard in Nidhani (Jind district of Haryana) while Sonam Malik is recovering from her injury in 62 kg. She has been asked to do light exercises. Ravi, Deepak Poonia and Sumit are also waiting for the Poland visa to be ready.
Ravi, Deepak Poonia, Bajrang and Vinesh secured a Tokyo ticket from World Championships in Astana (Kazakhstan) in 2019, and rest of the four wrestlers qualified from Olympic qualifying events. In the last Olympics, Sakshi Malik had won the medal, but this time she was defeated by Sonam Malik many times in trials. Sonam and Anshu, who came from junior to senior, have high expectations this time.
Vinesh has won gold medals at the International Ukrainian Tournament, Matteo Pellicone Tournament, Poland Open, Grand Prix of Spain and Asian Championship besides winning medals at the World Championships, while Bajrang Punia has won two golds at Matteo Pellicone besides Kartozia & V Balavadze Price and also won a gold in Ali Aliyev Tournament while he reached the finals of both previous Asian Championships. Now is the time to prepare for the examinations in the last phase and all the wrestlers will join the practice at Poland’s wrestling center as soon as they get a visa.
