Indian women wrestlers to prepare in Kazakhstan for Worlds

Vinesh Phogat

New Delhi, July 20 (IANS)

Eight Indian women grapplers will participate in the fifth Cup of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to be held at Astana from July 23 to 26 to prepare for the World Championships.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) selected the players on the basis of their performance during the trials conducted at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Lucknow on July 6.

Some top wrestlers will represent India at the tourney, including 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vinesh (48 kg), 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Lalita Sehrawat (55 kg) and 2011 Commonwealth Championship gold winner Sakshi Malik (58 kg).

"The tournament will be an ideal opportunity for our women's team to get international exposure before going into the World Championship. We will not leave any stone unturned in preparation of our wrestlers as we want more and more female wrestlers to qualify for Rio Olympics from the first qualification event (Worlds)," WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said.

The World Championships will be held in Las Vegas from September 7 to 15.

The tournament will see participation of grapplers from 20 nations including India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan, South Korea, United States, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Brazil, China, Greece, Georgia, Italy, Sweden, Canada and Maldives.

The team is scheduled to depart for Kazakhstan on Tuesday from here.

The squad: Vinesh (48 kg), Nirmala Devi (53 kg), Lalita (55 kg), Sakshi Malik (58 kg), Sarita (60 kg), Anita (63 kg), Navjot Kaur (69 kg), Nikki (75 kg)

Support staff: Roin Doborjgde (foreign expert), Manjeet Rani (coach), Subhash Bhardwaj (coach) and Satya Devi Malik (referee).