NEW DELHI: Olympic medalist Indian grappler Bajrang Punia on Saturday said that no wrestling events have taken place for the last several months and asked the Sports Ministry to start “wrestling activities as soon as possible”.
Punia took to his official X (formerly Twitter) and said that the 2024 Olympic Games will take place in the next seven months but no one seemed to take the extravagant multi-sport event seriously.
The ace wrestler revealed that no national tournaments or camps have been held for the last several months to help the players prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games.
To save the future of the wrestlers, he also asked the Sports Ministry to resume all the activities soon.
“Wrestling work has come to a standstill for the last several months. Neither has any national been held nor have any camps been organized to prepare the players. There are Olympic Games after 7 months but no one seems serious about the Olympics whereas wrestling has given four consecutive medals in the last four Olympics. Sports Ministry is requested to start all wrestling activities as soon as possible so that the future of the players can be saved.”
पिछले कई महीना से कुश्ती का कामकाज ठप है. न कोई नेशनल हुआ है और न ही खिलाड़ियों को तैयार करने के लिए कैम्प लगे हैं. 7 महीने बाद ओलंपिक खेल भी हैं लेकिन कोई भी ओलंपिक के लिए गंभीर नहीं दिख रहा जबकि पिछले चार ओलंपिक्स में कुश्ती ने लगातार चार मेडल दिए हैं.
खेल मंत्रालय से निवेदन…
— Bajrang Punia ???????? (@BajrangPunia) December 30, 2023
Earlier, Olympian Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling at an emotional press briefing, claiming that the Centre went back on its word to not install an aide of Brij Bhushan as an office-bearer of the wrestling federation.
Later, voicing his misgivings over the election of Sanjay Singh as the new WFI chief, fellow Olympian Bajrang Punia returned his Padma Shri in protest.
The star wrestlers earlier led a protest by wrestlers who came out against Brij Bhushan, accusing him of sexual harassment.
In light of the recent developments, the IOA announced Bhupinder Singh Bajwa as chairman of the newly created ad-hoc committee to run the day-to-day matters of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) with immediate effect on Wednesday. IOC’s announcement came after the Union Sports Ministry suspended the entire WFI’s governing council.
The IOA formed the ad hoc committee at the ministry’s request on Wednesday. Bajwa will be assisted in running the WFI by MM Somaya and Manjusha Kanwar in the newly constituted ad hoc committee. (ANI)