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Olympic-medal winning wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik slam WFI president, sit in protest at Jantar Mantar
India wrestlers have begun a new fight, which is against their own wrestling federation as they want the current WFI president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh removed from the post, know here why
Star Indian wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik among others are sitting in a protest at Jantar Mantar to protest to bring positive changes in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). Punia earlier tweeted that the WFI has only worked to bring the reputation of the players down. "The payers work hard to bring medals for the country but the federation has always worked hard to bring the wrestlers down. They have changed the rules as per their wishes to harrass the players," wrote Punia on his Twitter account.
"The duty of any federation is to support the players, ensure their needs are met. If there is any problem, federation should work towards solving it. But what to do when federation itself is the problem? Now we will have to fight, we will not take a step back," added Punia in a following tweet.
Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik also expressed the same thought in her tweet. The wrestlers posted pictures of their protest at the Jantar Mantar.
The current president of the WFI is Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. The wrestlers will address the media at 4 pm today on January 18 at Jantar Mantar. The tweets by Bajranj Punia do tell that the wrestlers are upset with the current set up at WFI but what are the specifics will be known only when the press conference is held later today.
This is some trouble for Brijbhushan and company as these are India's elite athletes. They include the likes of Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik. Two of them are Olympic medallists. Punia had won a bronze in Tokyo while Sakshi is a Rio bronze medallist. Vinesh and Anshu are big medal contenders in Paris 2024.
It will be interesting to hear the wrestlers and their angst against WFI president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. Not to forget, the president has earlier been in war of words with the Indian wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat. Bajrang has also mentioned that their fight is not against the Indian government or the Sports Authority of India (SAI) but the WFI.