India’s finest wrestlers won’t be able to take part within the U-23 world wrestling championships in Pontevedra, Spain because the Spanish Embassy right here has rejected the visa purposes of the vast majority of them, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) stated on Monday. As many as 21 wrestlers, largely in freestyle, will miss the event.
The nationwide federation stated it should write to United World Wrestling (UWW), the worldwide physique of the game, and request them to not give Spain internet hosting rights for any future event.
India have entered 30 wrestlers for the competitors however solely 9, together with six in Greco Roman, bought their visas, a lot to the shock of WFI. The World Championships began on Monday.
“We won’t be able to ship our crew. The full power of the squad together with wrestlers and help employees was 46. We had submitted the purposes on Oct 4 however the ladies’s crew won’t be able to board their flight tonight (Monday) as a result of their visas had been rejected,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar stated.
The crew included Antim Panghal, who turned the primary Indian girl to win gold on the U-20 World Championships this season. The truth is, Indian ladies gained 5 medals on the earlier version of the U-23 Worlds in Poland and had been trying to higher their performances.
“Antim was a gold medal contender and we had been eying an enormous haul, particularly by ladies. It was an important event for them however solely two ladies have gotten their visas cleared,” stated Tomar.
WFI can also be upset with the rationale given for the ‘Refusal of Visa.’ The rejected software of one of many ladies reads, “there are affordable doubts as to your intention to depart the territory of the Member States earlier than the expiry of the visa.”
“It has by no means occurred to us {that a} visa (Schengen) has been rejected for such a purpose. We advised them that it was an necessary competitors. We wrote to the organisers, knowledgeable UWW to talk to the Spanish Embassy. All this was executed, but they didn’t budge. Are our ladies going to flee from their nation? We’ve participated in age group occasions all over the world however nothing untoward has occurred. The Spanish Embassy was sitting on visa purposes for days and at the moment after we demanded our passports again, they despatched it with rejections,” stated Tomar.
“We’ll write to UWW to not give Spain internet hosting rights in future.”
There was no quick response to a request for remark from the Spanish Embassy.