Pulled out of overseas camp because issues with WFI yet to be resolved: Bajrang Punia

With the Oversight Committee report related to allegations of sexual harassment against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and its officials yet to be revealed, India’s Olympic medal-winning wrestler Bajrang Punia said he and triple Commonwealth Games gold winner in women’s wrestling, Vinesh Phogat, chose to pull out of their overseas training tours.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) had last month cleared Bajrang's proposal to train in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, for 16 days. Vinesh was scheduled to go for an 11-day training camp in Spala, Poland. However, Bajrang and Vinesh later withdrew from their respective tours.

Bajrang said he had communicated to SAI his reasons for withdrawing. "The matter for which the wrestlers had protested is still not resolved. The Oversight Committee report has not come out, and under the circumstances, we did not want to go. We were hopeful that it would get sorted. We had informed SAI of our decision," Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang said.

Both Bajrang and Vinesh, who won medals at the World Championships last year, did not participate in the international ranking series tournaments and also pulled out of the ongoing Asian Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan. "We had said before also that we would not take part in competitions till the time we get justice. Yes, we want to compete because this is a very important year for us with the world championships, which is a Paris Olympics qualifier, scheduled. Both of us are training together and preparing for the big events," he said.