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A 13-member team of wrestlers will represent India in the Zagreb Open ranking series, the first world ranking tournament in the Croatian capital, from January 10 to 14.
Bhupinder Singh Bajwa, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, appointed by the Indian Olympic Association to oversee the day-to-day conduct of wrestling affairs in the country, made the announcement here on Tuesday. "Thanks to a timely intervention by the Ministry of External Affairs, the 25 Indians due to travel to Zagreb will complete the visa formalities on Wednesday. The team was facing difficulty in securing a visa appointment. However, the Ministry of External Affairs has helped the team in this regard," Bajwa said, according to an official release. The Ad Hoc Committee Chairman said the Croatian Wrestling Federation Secretary-General Tin Bregovic had sent a letter of invitation for 13 wrestlers, 9 coaching and support staff and three referees. "We have taken every step to ensure that the team reaches Zagreb well in time for the tournament," Bajwa said. "We have ensured that India's Olympic hopefuls would compete in their respective weight class along with a 2kg weight allowance in the first ranking event of the Olympic year. We are confident that the 13 who will compete in Zagreb will make the most of the chance to prepare for the Asian Qualification tournament in April and the World Qualification tournament in May." he added. The Union Sports Ministry had last month instructed the IOA to form an ad-hoc committee to manage and control the affairs of the WFI. The Ad hoc Commitee is tasked with overseeing and supervising WFI's operations, which include athlete selection, submitting entries for athletes to participate in international events, organizing sports activities, handling bank accounts, managing the website, and other related responsibilities. The team:MenFreestyle: Aman (57kg); Yash (74kg), Deepak Punia (86kg), Vicky (97kg) and Sumit (125kg). Greco-Roman: Gyanender (60kg), Neeraj (67kg), Vikas (77kg), Sunil Kumar(87kg), Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Naveen (130kg). Women: Sonam (62kg) and Radhika (68kg) Coaching and Support staff: Kuldeep Singh (Team leader & coach), Vinod Kumar, Sujeet, Shashi Bhushan Prasad, Manoj Kumar, Virender Singh and Alka Tomar (coaches); Vishal Kumar Rai (Physiotherapist) and Neeraj (Masseur). Referees: Satya Dev Malik, Dinesh Dhondiba Gund and Sanjay Kumar. (ANI)
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