Anilava Chatterjee, Tokyo: Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has made serious allegations against NGO’s like Olympic Gold Quest , JSW Sports and Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) following the failure of Indian wrestlers at Tokyo Olympics. India returned with just two medals – one silver and one bronze.
Singh had claimed that the Indian wrestlers would win more than two medals, bettering their best finish at one edition which was at London Olympics in 2012. Sushil Kumar won silver and Yugeshwar Dutt won bronze at the London Olympics. Whereas at the Tokyo Olympics Ravi Kumar Dahiya gave the country silver while hot favourite Bajrang Punia returned with a silver.
In an interview to Xtra Time, Singh alleged that organizations like OGQ, JSW and TOPS are ruining the athletes.
“We had hopes of winning four medals at least from wrestling. And the reason for such high hopes and expectations was because of the performances from our athletes in the recent world championships and ranking tournaments. We were sure about Bajrang, Ravi and Vinesh to win medals in this Olympics. I think the performance of Deepak was affected by his coach who had a fight with the referee after the bout. Both the referee and coach were from Russia and looked like they had a personal grudge against each other. The result of which was the fight between the two after the bout of Deepak.”
“Organisations like OGQ and JSW will also be held responsible for the failure of our athletes. See the athletes do all the hard work, supported by their coaches, family members. And when they are ready then these organizations throw their hat to support them (spoil their party). They tell the athletes spend as much as you can for your preparation. The athletes think themselves to be bigger than their federations. And to some extent these NGO’s also have the backing of Sports Authority of India (SAI). The Indian Government has lend their full support ( both infra structural, financial and logistical support) . So what was the need of these organizations? Each and every federation now can take care of their athletes.”
Singh also cited the year long stints in Hungary for Vinesh Phogat which was sponsored by OGQ.
“Vinesh stayed in Hungary with her coach (Woller Akkos) and as far as we know there aren’t good sparring partners in her weight class,” Singh said.
He added, “It seems she became the sparring partner for the coach’s wife Sastin Marianna, who represented Hungary in Tokyo. Things like this cannot happen.”
To watch the full interview click on the link below: