Internet Desk: Now Narsingh can board the flight to Rio after the clearance from WADA. Today United World Wrestling further approved his name in the 74kg Freestyle category. Prior to the permission of Narsingh, Indian athletes at Rio celebrated flag hoisting ceremony.
After NADA cleared Narsingh on Monday he was waiting for the nod from UWW to compete at Rio. They are the final authority to select wrestlers for the Olympic.
“After Narsingh was given a clean chit by NADA, we immediately wrote a letter to the world body to reconsider his name in 74kg category. Today I am really delighted to announce that UWW has reverted back saying that Narsingh will be allowed to participate in the Olympics,” Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said.
Previously WFI sent the name of Praveen Rana replacing Narsingh after he failed the dope test. India wanted to confirm a berth at 74kg Freestyle category of Rio Olympic. UWW confirmed the name of Naveen in the Olympic list. After WFI sent the name of Narsingh further UWW has to revise the list.
“Now they just need a confirmation letter from us and we have already sent it. So, there should not be any problem as far as the world body is concerned about Narsingh’s participation,” Brij Bhushan added.
After so many controversies Indian athletes who reached Rio are now waiting for Narsingh to join them. However, Indians raised the tricolor at Rio Olympic village yesterday. Two-time Olympic medalist Janeth Arcain, the ex-basketball player who is Mayor of the Olympic Village, was present at the ceremony to mark the Indian flag being raised.
The flag-raising is one of the prominent ceremonies at the Olympic Athletes Village, which is organised when a fair number of the country’s athletes have checked into the village. The Indians have been arriving in the village in small numbers, but now most have settled in. Several of them arrived at the ceremony after training stints. The other shooters visible easily were Prakash Nanjappa, Gurpreet Singh, Chain Singh, besides some athletes like Manpreet Kaur and Khushbir Kaur, the women’s hockey and two swimmers in Sajan Prakash and Shivani Katariya. Also present were officials from the Indian Embassy in Brazil and other officials from India.