Spanish Embassy grounds several under-23 national wrestlers bound for World Wrestling Championships 

The Spanish Embassy in India has grounded multiple athletes in the national wrestling squad bound for the U23 World Wrestling Championships that got underway on Monday in the Spanish city of Pontevedra.

“Of the 42-member national wrestling team, only 50 percent of visa applications have been cleared. The remaining visa applications have been rejected,” the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said in a statement on Monday.

The week-long competition will conclude on October 23.

Antim Panghal, India’s U20 world champion of 53kg, was among the 22 wrestlers whose visa applications were rejected by the Spanish Embassy in India.

“It is big setback for a teenage wrestler like Antim as she was eagerly looking forward to showcasing her talent in the U23 World Wrestling Championships,” Jitender Yadav, chief women’s wrestling coach said.

Members of the coaching staff and at least six wrestlers whose visa application was cleared by the embassy left for Spain on Sunday. Other members of the team were expected to fly Monday.

“The competition has started and Monday was the last chance to fly,” a senior wrestling coach said.

Since the U23 World Wrestling Championships is one of the mandatory competitions of United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing body in wrestling, the WFI is surprised at the rejection of visa applications by the Spanish Embassy in India.

“It is for the first-time national team funded by the government has not been granted visa,” WFI said in a press release.

The majority of Indian wrestlers, whose visa applications were rejected, have widely traveled for international competitions across Europe and Asia.

“There are reasonable doubts as to your attention about leaving the territory of the member states before the expiry of the visa,” was the reason the Spanish Embassy said while rejecting visa applications of the Indian wrestlers.

Disappointed by the Spanish Embassy's reason for rejecting visa applications of the national team, the WFI has decided to report the issue to UWW and will request not to allot Spain major international wrestling events in the future.

“We will appeal to the world governing body in wrestling that Spanish Wrestling Federation shouldn’t be allotted any major competition in future,” WFI said in a statement.