Vinesh Phogat injury: Wrestling Ad-hoc body to conduct World Championships trials as per schedule
The IOA-constituted ad-hoc body for Wrestling will conduct the trials for the upcoming World Championships as per schedule despite an injury to Vinesh Phogat.
When Vinesh Phogat announced her withdrawal from the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games, there was speculation that the ad-hoc would conduct trials only for the four non-Olympic categories.
Now, an ad-hoc committee member on a condition of anonymity, has confirmed that the trials for the World Championships will be conducted in Patiala as per the schedule. They also confirmed that the trials will be for all 10 categories (six Olympics and four non-Olympics) in men's and women's wrestling.
Earlier in July 2023, Wrestlers underwent two trials for Asian Games 2023 in order to accommodate Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia who had missed practice due to the wrestling protest.
After a couple of trials in July, several wrestlers felt that it would be difficult for them to recover in time for the World Championships trials. However, the ad-hoc body has confirmed that the trials would go on as planned earlier.
World Championships trials to take place on August 25-26
The trials for the upcoming World Championships will take place on August 25 and 26 at Patiala. The trials will take place for 10 different weight categories in men's Freestyle wrestling and 10 different weight categories in men's Greco-roman. For Women's wrestling, the weight category will range from 50kg to 76+ kg.
If there are fewer than eight wrestlers for a category, then the Nordic system will be applied, where there will be a round-robin format. Based on this, each wrestler will take on every other wrestler in the same weight category, and the wrestlers are ranked based on maximum victories. The top three will win medals as well.
If there are more than eight wrestlers, there will be a direct elimination format. Based on this, there will be a seeding system applied for the wrestlers. The winner will make it to the next round, and the loser will be directly eliminated.