WFI demands action against support staff attached with Vinesh

PARIS: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Sanjay Singh on Wednesday demanded action against the support staff attached with Vinesh Phogat in the wake of her shock exit from the Paris Olympics, saying the blunder of not maintaining her weight before the final was not acceptable.

The Indian contingent woke up to the rude jolt of Vinesh's disqualification, hours before her gold medal bout against American Sarah Hildebrandt.

She was found overweight by 100 grams on day two of the weigh-in and resultantly disqualified.

Cuban wrestler Guzman Lopez Yusnelis, who had lost her semifinal to Vinesh, will now clash in the gold medal match against Hildebrandt.

Vinesh has been training with Woller Akos, her personal coach from Belgium and has also worked with South African mental conditioning coach Wayne Lombard.

“It is not a fault of Vinesh. She was performing amazingly. The coaches, the support staff, the physios and the nutritionists should take full responsibility,” Sanjay Singh told PTI.

“They should have paid attention to her all the time to ensure nothing of this sort happens. How this happened and how she went over the weight limit must be looked into.

“I request the Government of India to take action against all those responsible,” he said.

Vinesh had opted to train with Akos and the government of India had cleared his travel along with Vinesh for the Games.

Akos, like the Indian national coaches, was granted full-access accreditation.

It cannot be denied that Akos has played a key role in reshaping Vinesh's game.

He has been working with the star Indian wrestler since 2018, bringing in technical and tactical changes to her game. Vinesh has won two World Championship bronze medals with him.

That Vinesh was on top of her game was evident when she trumped unbeaten Yui Susaki, employing a strategy of playing a waiting game and executing a match-winning move in the dying moments of the match.

Sitting in Vinesh's corner, Akos was seen crying when she sealed her spot in the final.

The WFI President said the federation will allow only UWW certified coaches to train the Indian wrestlers, going forward.

“The Wrestling Federation of India will try their best to hire coaches who have cleared the level 1 and level two courses of the UWW.

“We will also ensure that the wrestlers practice with the coaches of WFI and officials of the UWW so that such episodes never happen ever again,” he said.

Asked specifically, will WFI allow personal coaches or not, Singh said, the matter will be discussed.

“The entire WFI committee will decide how to move forward with this matter.”

Singh said he is holding a meeting with IOA President PT Usha and they will approach UWW chief Nenad Lalovic to see if anything can be done.

“I spoke to the IOA (Indian Olympics Association) and the UWW (United World Wrestling) and I even sent letters, asking them to look into the matter and allow her to compete,” he said.

Later, the Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made a statement in the Lok Sabha.

Mandaviya said the government had provided a financial assistance of Rs 70 lakh to Vinesh in the build-up to the Games for training and competitions abroad where she travelled with her support staff -- that included Akos, Lombard, Ashwini Jeevan Patil (Physio), Manyank Singh (mental conditioning expert), and Arvind (sparring partner).

They trained in Spain, France and Hungary.

The minister also said in the Tokyo Olympic cycle, she was provided financial assistance of more than Rs 1 crore 13 lakh.