Sports Ministry sanctions Rs 30 crores, elite wrestlers back to mat after a long hiatus

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New Delhi, April 9: With nearly six months to go for the September 13 to 21 World Wrestling Championships in Zagreb (Croatia), elite Indian wrestlers got a big boost as the Sports Ministry sanctioned roughly Rs 30 crore during ACTC (Annual Calendar of Training and Competitions) a senior official of the WFI said.

While the WFI plans to conduct national camps as early as possible, the national governing body of wrestling in India would restrict individual wrestlers from going for advanced training on foreign soil in the near future because the results in the past were not encouraging.

After a tumultuous start to the 2025 season, the WFI will be back to routine national camps and send national teams for international exposure tours in the buildup months to the Zagreb World Championships in September, the WFI official said.

"We will shortly announce the dates of the national camps to prepare the national teams for the global competition," added the WFI official. "The women's camp is expected to be conducted in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The men's camp will either be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh or Pune in Maharashtra."

The WFI will shortlist at least four wrestlers in each of the weight categories in all three formats - women's freestyle, men's freestyle and Greco Roman for the national camps. The players for the camps, the WFI official said, will be shortlisted on the basis of their performance during the national selection trials held in March for the Asian Wrestling Championships.

It has been over two years since the WFI was in doldrums as it wasn't recognised by the sports ministry. There were no national camps, and wrestlers practiced on their own. Even the Paris Olympic Games-bound Indian wrestling team practiced individually as the Sports Ministry didn't sanction the national camps.

It resulted in a not-so-encouraging performance in the 2024 Olympic Games. India won just one bronze through Aman Sehrawat in the men's 57kg freestyle event.

The top wrestlers even missed out on two global ranking series at the start of the 2025 season due to the non-sanction of international exposure by the Sports Ministry.

Earlier last month, the Sports Ministry revoked the WFI suspension, and the first meeting of the WFI and Sports Ministry was held on Wednesday (April 9).

The WFI also plans to conduct a junior national championship from April 20 in Rajasthan. "The U15 and U17 national championships are also pending and will be conducted shortly," the WFI official added.

Women's Wrestling Camp

For the first time, the women's camp will shift to Western India in Gujarat from the North. The national camps will be the first since top wrestlers, including Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, protested against the WFI's former chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, for lack of good governance in January 2023.

Some of the female wrestlers had also alleged sexual harassment at the SAI (Sports Authority of India) Lucknow centre, which eventually led to protests against the WFI chief.

To steer clear of controversies the WFI has proposed to conduct a camp in Gujarat. "We might hold a men's camp in Lucknow but not women's," one of the WFI officials familiar with the development said.