Women’s national camp postponed after wrestlers pull out

The national camp for womens wrestlers, that was scheduled to be held at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Lucknow from September 1, has now been postponed. SAI on Saturday said that new dates for the camp will be “intimated in due course”.

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Secretary General Vinod Tomar said that the decision was made after the elite wrestlers started pulling out of the camp. SAI is organising the national camps in consultation with the respective National Sports Federations (NSF) due to the latter being de-recognised by the Sports Ministry.

“Our idea was to hold a national camp for elite wrestlers, only 15-16 girls were going to be there and when some say they can’t attend, others follow suit. Now we want to avoid a situation where we force them to come by threatening disciplinary action and then something happens to them, responsibility for that will fall on our heads,” Tomar told.

Tomar said while Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat had told the federation in writing that she won’t be able to attend the camp, Divya Kakran informed the head coach of the same. Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik meanwhile had said that the lack of training partners would make it difficult for her to train in Lucknow.

“We will assess the situation next week but chances are that nothing will take place at least for the next 15 days,” Tomar said. He, however, also said that the men’s national camp which is set to start on September 1 at the SAI centre in Sonepat is on course to start on the scheduled date.