WFI announces Indian squad and travel dates for Individual World Cup
Tokyo Olympics-bound Indian wrestlers Deepak Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya will lead a 27-member Indian squad at the Individual World Cup to be held in Belgrade from December 12 to 18. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) recently released the full squad as well as their travel dates.
The tournament will kick off with the Greco-Roman competition which will be held on December 12 and 13. It will be followed by women's wrestling events with the freestyle competition to conclude the event. The different Indian teams will thus be travelling accordingly, maintaining the strict Covid-19 protocols.
The Greco-Roman team, which will be spearheaded by 2020 Asian Championships bronze medallist Arjun Halakurki, will travel on December 9 night. The women's wrestling team has the Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and they will be departing for Individual World Cup on December 12.
Last to leave for the Individual World Cup will be the freestyle team. It has the likes of Asian Championships silver medallist Gaurav Baliyan, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Satyavrat Kadian, besides Deepak Punia, Ravi Kumar among others.
Recently 2019 Asian Championships silver medallist Gurpreet Singh, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Narsingh Yadav and 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Divya Kakran had tested positive for Covid-19. Singh and Yadav have been discharged from the hospital and are currently in home quarantine. If all three get negative results in the next few days and are given the clearance to participate in Individual World Cup, they will join the camp and make the Belgrade trip.
India's two other Tokyo-bound star grapplers, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat have opted out of this event.
Full squad for Individual World Cup
Freestyle: Ravi Kumar (57 kg), Rahul Aware (61 kg), Naveen (70 kg), Narsingh Yadav (74 kg), Gaurav Baliyan (79 kg), Deepak Punia (86 kg), Satyavrat Kadian (97 kg), Sumit (125 kg)
Greco Roman: Arjun Halakurki (55 kg), Gyanendra (60 kg), Sachin Rana (63 kg), Ashu (67 kg), Aditya Kundu (72 kg), Sajan (77 kg), Gurpreet Singh (82 kg), Sunil Kumar (87 kg), Hardeep ( 97kg), Naveen (130 kg)
Women's Wrestling: Nirmala Devi (50 kg), Pinky (55 kg), Anshu (57 kg), Sarita (59 kg), Sonam (65 kg), Sakshi Malik (65 kg), Divya Kakran (68 kg), Gursharan Kaur (72 kg), Kiran (76 kg)