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Sabi Hussain
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 28
Geeta and Babita Phogat’s Rio Olympics dream is over. An error of judgment on the part of Haryana’s famous wrestlers has put a big question mark over their careers. A possible life ban is looming large on them after both forfeited their repechage bout in the recently-concluded Olympic Qualifying tournament in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has dropped their names from the final Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkey (May 6-8) after a stern warning from United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing body of the sport. UWW warned that if the two Phogat sisters were entered in the field for the Istanbul tournament, they wouldn’t be allowed to compete; worse, the UWW would also reject the entries of the other Indian wrestlers in different weight categories.
Forfeited bouts
UWW is punishing the two sisters for their act of “indiscipline” committed in Ulaanbaatar when they did not turn up for their respective repechage bouts, despite several announcements by the organisers before the start of their competition. Geeta and Babita forfeited their bronze-medal match under “injury default” after they failed to secure Olympics berths in their previous round. According to sources, what irked UWW the most was that the two grapplers and the women’s freestyle team’s head coach Kuldeep Malik did not inform UWW delegate about the injuries to the two wrestlers.
Olympian and World Championships medallist Geeta forfeited her 53kg bout against China’s Zhou Zhangting while Babita failed to appear against Mexico’s Alma Jane Valencia.
All this happened in front of UWW president Nenad Lalovic. It is learnt that Lalovic was upset with the manner in which the bouts were forfeited and immediately pulled up WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh — who was at the venue — for this “gross act of indiscipline”. The WFI chief immediately rang up the WFI office in New Delhi and instructed the secretary to withdraw the two wrestlers from the Istanbul qualifiers.
Singh also instructed the WFI officials to drop their names from the national camp in Lucknow and immediately issued a show-cause notice to the two sisters.
Possible ban
According to a senior WFI disciplinary committee member, the Phogat sisters have been given until May 15 to reply to the notice. If they fail to do this, they face the prospect of a life ban. In case they respond in time but the WFI is not satisfied with their response, a one-year ban could be imposed on them.
“Geeta and Babita will not be allowed to appear for the selection trials for the Rio Olympics, even if other Indian wrestlers in their weight categories manage to book a Rio berth in Istanbul. This whole episode has finished their Rio Olympics chances. They won’t be part of the final qualifier, and have been asked to leave the national camp,” a disciplinary committee member told The Tribune.
“It’s terrible news for Indian wrestling. We had high hopes from the Phogat sisters, but now all that has come to an end. They thought the WFI wouldn’t take any action, keeping their superstar status in Indian wrestling in mind. But everything they did was witnessed by UWW chief himself and he certainly did not take this indiscipline lightly,” this official added.
The WFI has named Lalita Kumari as Babita’s replacement in the 53kg category, while Sakshi Malik will compete in place of Geeta in the 58kg weight division in Istanbul.
This has added to the bad news for the Phogat sisters — Vinesh, their cousin, was disqualified from the Ulaanbaatar event after being found overweight by 400gm.
Freestyle grappler Sumit (125kg), who also forfeited his bronze-medal match against Bulgaria’s Lyuben Borisov, has also been issued a show-cause notice by the WFI. Hitendra has been named as his replacement for the Istanbul tournament.
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