The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has been suspended by UWW, the world governing body for wrestling, for being unable to hold elections by the deadline, for which it had been already warned. The Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) ad-hoc panel, led by Bhupender Singh Bajwa failed to honour the 45-day deadline to hold the WFI elections.
For Indian wrestlers, this development means that they will not be playing under the Indian flag at the World Championships, starting on September 16 and will be playing with neutral athletes. Since the wrestling federation sends the name for the World Championships through trials, Indian wrestlers will be neutral athletes after the body's suspension. But that will not be the case in the 19th Asian Games next month in Hangzhou, China.
In the Asian Games, the wrestlers will be allowed to compete under the Indian flag where the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) sends the entries and not WFI. For all the events where WFI will be directly involved, the athletes won't play as Indian wrestlers and will be neutral.
The development has come a day before the trials for the Worlds in Patiala and as per the ad-hoc panel chief Bajwa, they will happen despite WFI's suspension. "(The trials will go ahead), as per schedule," Bajwa was quoted as saying by PTI on Thursday, August 24.
As per an IOA source, the ad-hoc panel was communicated about WFI's suspension on Wednesday night itself. "The UWW communicated to the ad-hoc panel on Wednesday night that WFI has been suspended for not holding elections to its executive committee," an IOA source told PTI.
The IOA had appointed an ad-hoc panel on April 27 and the next day, UWW's warning came. The elections were supposed to take place on May 5 but delays started to happen following the wrestlers' protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on sexual harassment charges. It seemed like the elections were finally taking place on August 12 but they were delayed again and now the suspension is indefinite.
