"We stand with three Wushu athletes": SAI provides update on Asian Gamesbound athletes

The three women players from Arunachal Pradesh Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega and Mepung Lamgu were supposed to participate in individual matches which will run from September 24 to 28 at the Guali Cultural and Sports Centre in Xiaoshan district.

SAI took to X, formerly known as Twitter to show their support for the athletes and shared a picture of the three Wushu players having a meal with the SAI official at the SAI hostel in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital.

"We stand with the three #AsianGames2022 bound Wushu athletes, taking the utmost care for them at this hour. The 3 athletes are being taken care of at the SAI Hostel," SAI wrote in a tweet.

On Friday, two of the Wushu players hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, Onilu and Mepung who were approved to participate by the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 Organising Committee were unable to download their accreditation cards - which act as visas to enter China.

The third athlete Nyeman, who managed to download her accreditation, was informed that she would not be allowed to travel beyond Hong Kong. The athletes were to take part in individual events of the martial arts sport.

As a mark of protest, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur cancelled his visit to China for the Games.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also came forward to strongly condemn China's act of denying visas to three athletes from Arunachal Pradesh and said that the act violates both the spirit of sports and the rules governing the conduct of the Asian Games.

Taking to the social media platform X Kiren Rijiju wrote, "I strongly condemn this act by China to deny visas to our Wushu Athletes from Arunachal Pradesh who were to participate in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. This violates both the spirit of Sports & also the Rules governing the conduct of Asian Games, which explicitly prohibits discrimination against competitors from member states." (ANI)