Harpal Singh Bedi /New Delhi
Jakarta Asian Games gold medalist Bajrang Punia and Rio Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik will spearhead a 30 member Indian challenge in the World Wrestling Championship to be held in Budapest, Hungary from October 20 to 28.
The Wrestling Federation of India(WFI ) on Monday named 10 members each for the free-style, greco-roman and women’s wrestling competition
The squad will be accompanied by 17 officials including coaches, physio, masseur and referees
Twice Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar does not figure in the squad in which Bajrang (65kg) is the best bet in the freestyle category.
In the women section besides, Sakshi (62kg),Commonwealth Games gold winner Pooja Dhanda (57kg) medallist and Navjot Kaur (68kg) are medal hopes.
Among the famed Phogat sisters, only Ritu figures in the squad as Geeta and Babita did not attend the trials while Asiad gold medallist Vinesh was not considered she has an elbow injury.
Jagminder Singh, Kuldeep Singh are the coaches of the freestyle and Greco-roman teams respectively while Kuldeep Malik will be in charge of the women’s squad. The team leaves tomorrow morning for the pre-tournament conditioning camp in Budapest.
Women’s team coach Kuldeep Malik also promised a better showing by his wards “We are fully prepared for the tournament. The girls have worked extensively on their technic after the Asian Games and we hope to better our medals tally this time around,”
Jagminder Singh exuded confident of his boys doing well “We will definitely win some medals but I can’t tell you the number. We are fully prepared and the camp before the main event will be very beneficial for us,” .
Team:
Freestyle: Sandeep Tomar (57kg), Sonba Tanaji Gongane (61kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg), Pankaj Rana (70kg), Jitender (74kg), Sachin Rathi (79kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg), Deepak (92kg) Mausam Khatri (97kg), Sumit (125kg).
Coach :Jagminder Singh
Greco Roman: Vijay (55kg), Gyanender (60kg), Gaurav Sharma (63kg), Manish (67kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg), Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Harpreet Singh (82kg), Manjeet (87kg), Hardeep (97kg), Naveen (130kg).
Coach :Kuldeep Singh .
Women’s: Ritu Phogat (50kg), Pinki (53kg), Seema (55kg), Pooja Dhanda (57kg), Sangeeta (59kg), Sakshi Malik (62kg), Ritu (65kg), Navjot Kaur (68kg), Rajini (72kg), Kiran (76kg
(Coach) ), Kuldeep Malik.
The team is backed by the Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle Unit, who are the principal sponsors of the WFI .