Indian wrestlers to compete in World Championships under neutral flag after WFI's suspension

On Thursday (August 24), the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was suspended by the United World Wrestling (UWW) for its failure to conduct timely elections. As a result, it will now prevent Indian wrestlers from competing at the World Championships, in Budapest, under the national flag. In the World C'ships, wrestling gets underway on September 16 and will conclude on September 25.The Indian wrestlerswill nowcompete as neutral athletes. The suspension came after the WFI's ad-hoc panel, spearheadedby Bhupender Singh Bajwa, could not honour the 45-day deadline for conducting the elections.

Despite the ban of the WFI, Indian wrestlers can still compete under the national flag at the Asian Games, which kicks off onSeptember 23. It is to be noted that entries are sent by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and not the WFI, PTI news agency reported.

Earlier, the IOAhad appointed the ad-hoc panel on April 27. The very next day, the UWW had issued a warning that it could suspend the Indian federation if the deadline is not met in terms of holding the elections.

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“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 was quoted as saying by PTI.

The suspension displays everything wrong happening in Indian wrestling. It has exposed the internal struggles within the ad-hoc panel, with panel member Gian Singh pointing fingers at Bajwa for a lack of transparency. This mismanagement and blame-game escalated and led to the colossalfailure of the WFI to conduct timely elections.

Gian told PTI, "I have also heard that WFI has been suspended but I can’t tell you what the ad-hoc panel will do now. Mr Bajwa does not call us for discussion any more. I did not even know how the criteria were finalised for the Worlds trials."

“Mr Bajwa is too busy, it seems," he added.

The wrestling body was set to host its elections on May 07. Due to various reasons, such as a series of legal complaints and court stays from multiple dissatisfied state bodies, the elections got delayed repeatedly.

This governing body turmoil follows recent successes within Indian wrestling. The national women’s team had recently won the team title at the U-20 World Championships for the first time, defeating powerhouse nations including Japan and USA.

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