Bajrang Punia mentioned the preparation for the Olympics wanted pressing consideration.© AFP
Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia on Saturday urged the Sports activities Ministry to restart the wrestling actions within the nation with simply seven months remaining for subsequent yr’s Paris Video games, and mentioned nobody appeared to have taken the preparations for the quadrennial showpiece critically. Wrestling motion has come to a standstill for the final a number of months owing to the turmoil inside the fraternity following the grapplers’ protests towards former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Even the election of a brand new Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) committee couldn’t restore normalcy because the Sports activities Ministry suspended the Sanjay Singh-led panel citing the violation of its personal structure in asserting the nationwide U-15 and U-20 Championships.
“Wrestling actions have come to a standstill for the final a number of months. Neither has any nationals been held nor have any camps been organised to organize the gamers (for Paris Olympics),” Punia wrote on his ‘X’ account.
Punia, who had determined to return his Padma Shri in protest over the election of Sanjay Singh, a Brij Bhushan loyalist, additional mentioned the preparation for the Olympics wanted pressing consideration.
“There may be an Olympic Video games after seven months however nobody appears critical about it. Wrestling has given 4 consecutive medals within the final 4 Olympics,” he mentioned.
Punia, a 65kg freestyle bronze winner in Tokyo Olympics, mentioned the officers ought to take into accout the gamers’ future.
“So, I request the Sports activities Ministry to start out all wrestling actions as quickly as potential in order that the way forward for the gamers will be saved,” he added.
Within the current days, a slew of protest measures from the grapplers took the centre stage as Sakshi Malik determined to retire from wrestling whereas Vinesh Phogat determined to return her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award in a letter addressed to PM Narendra Modi.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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