NEW DELHI: Star Indian grapplers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya on Sunday suffered defeats in the selection trials for the upcoming international tournaments on Sunday, following which they are out of the race to take part in the Paris Olympics qualification. Bajrang and Ravi clinched medals in the previous Tokyo Olympic Games, however, this time they failed to cross the selection trials. Bajrang suffered a humiliating 1-9 loss in the 65kg men’s freestyle semifinal match against Rohit Kumar. Bajrang made his place in the semifinal match after a narrow win against Ravinder, or else he would have been eliminated in his first match of the selection trials. On the other hand, Dahiya failed to make a mark as well after making a comeback from injury, as he lost against Aman by 13-14 in his opening match of the trials. In his second match, Dahiya suffered his second defeat of the trials against Udit. The loss of Bajrang and Ravi will stop them from taking part in the Paris Olympics 2024 qualification round. Meanwhile, the winners at the trials will get the opportunity to compete at the Asian and World Olympic Qualifiers. The Asian Wrestling Championships will be held from April 11 to 16, while, Asian Olympic Qualifiers will be held from April 19 to 21. Earlier in a release, the Ad-hoc Committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) revealed that Antim Panghal, who has already secured the Paris Olympics quota, will “receive a direct entry to participate in the 2024 Asian Championships.” “Once Indian wrestlers secure a quota either at the Asian Olympic Qualifier or World Olympic Qualifier, the quota winner will face a challenger on 5th June 2024. To determine the challenger, a trial will be held on 31st May, where only the top 4 wrestlers in 53 Kg WW and the top 3 wrestlers in other categories (where India has won a quota) emerging from the trials on March 10-11 will play. These challengers will play in the Nordic format and the winner of this will get to wrestle against the quota winner to determine who will represent the country at the Paris Olympics,” the Ad-hoc committee stated in a press release.
