New Delhi, Mar 11:
Tokyo Olympics medal winners Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya’s dreams of making it to the quadrennial showpiece event in Paris were shattered as they suffered crushing defeats in the selection trials for the upcoming international tournaments on Sunday.
This defeat marks the end of the road for Punia and Dahiya to participate in the Paris Olympics qualification.
The duo had won medals in the previous Tokyo Olympics, but this time, disappointingly, failed to register victories in the trials to qualify for international events.
Bajrang suffered a humiliating 1-9 defeat at the hands of Rohit Kumar in the 65kg men’s freestyle semifinals. His entry into the semifinals also was not easy as he almost lost to Ravinder in the very first match of the selection trials.
Meanwhile, Dahiya lost in the first two selection trial matches against Aman and Udit. He lost to the Aman by 13-14. The triumphant grapplers will get the opportunity to compete at the Asian and World Olympic Qualifiers.
The Asian Wrestling Championships is scheduled from April 11 to 16, while, Asian Olympic Qualifiers is from April 19 to 21.
Earlier in a release, the Ad-hoc Committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) revealed that Antim Panghal, who has already secured the Paris Olympics quota, will receive a direct entry to participate in the 2024 Asian Championships.
“Once Indian wrestlers secure a quota either at the Asian Olympic Qualifier or World Olympic Qualifier, the quota winner will face a challenger on 5th June 2024. To determine the challenger, a trial will be held on 31st May, where only the top 4 wrestlers in 53 Kg WW and the top 3 wrestlers in other categories (where India has won a quota) emerging from the trials on March 10-11 will play.
“These challengers will play in the Nordic format and the winner of this will get to wrestle against the quota winner to determine who will represent the country at the Paris Olympics,” the ad hoc committee said in a press release.
