Ravi Kumar, Deepak Punia among 24 wrestlers to play in World Cup

The international tournament will be played in Serbia.

A contingent of 42 members including star wrestlers Ravi Kumar, Deepak Punia and Sakshi Malik will be travelling to Belgrade, Serbia to represent India at the Senior Individual World Cup slated to be held from December 12 to 18.

It will be the first international competition for the Indian wrestlers after the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. They will be hoping to perform well in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

The participation in the tournament has been sanctioned by the government of India at an overall cost of more than Rs. 90 lakhs and it will include Air Tickets, Boarding and Lodging, United World Wrestling licence fees, visa fees and out of pocket allowances for players, coaches and referees.

India have attained a total of four Olympic quotas in wrestling so far through Bajrang Punia (men’s freestyle 65 kg), Vinesh Phogat (women’s 53 kg), Ravi Kumar (men’s freestyle 57 kg) and Deepak Punia (men’s freestyle 86 kg).

The nation will have two more opportunities to grab the remaining quotas at the Asian Qualification Tournament scheduled for March 2021 and the World Qualification Tournament slated to be held from April 29 to May 2 2021.

The following wrestlers will participate in the tournament:

Men’s freestyle: Ravi Kumar (57 kg), Rahul Aware (61 kg), Naveen (70 kg), Gourav Baliyan (79 kg), Deepak Punia (86 kg), Satyavart Kadian (97 kg), Sumit (125 kg)

Men’s Greco-Roman: Arjun Halakurki (55 kg), Gyanender (60 kg), Sachin Rana (63 kg), Ashu (67 kg), Aditya Kundu (72 kg), Sajan (77 kg), Sunil Kumar (87 kg), Hardeep (97 kg), Naveen (130 kg)

Women’s: Nirmala Devi (50 kg), Pinki (55 kg), Anshu (57 kg), Sarita (59 kg), Sonam (62 kg), Sakshi Malik (65 kg), Gursharan Preet Kaur (72 kg), Kiran (76 kg)