WFI demands action against support staff with Vinesh Phogat

The Wrestling Federation of India WFI President Sanjay Singh on Wednesday demanded action against the support staff attached with Vinesh Phogat in the wake of her shock exit from the Paris Olympics 2024 saying the blunder of not maintaining her weight before the final was not acceptableThe Indian contingent woke up to the rude jolt of Vineshs disqualification hours before her gold medal bout against American Sarah HildebrandtShe was found overweight by 100 grams on day two of the weighin and resultantly disqualifiedAlso ReadChief medical officer reveals drastic steps taken to cut Vineshs weightCuban wrestler Guzman Lopez Yusnelis who had lost her semifinal to Vinesh will now clash in the gold medal match against HildebrandtVinesh has been training with Woller Akos her personal coach from Belgium and has also worked with South African mental conditioning coach Wayne LombardIt is not a fault of Vinesh She was performing amazingly The coaches the support staff the physios and the nutritionists should take full responsibility Sanjay Singh told PTIThey should have paid attention to her all the time to ensure nothing of this sort happens How this happened and how she went over the weight limit must be looked into I request the Government of India to take action against all those responsible he saidAlso ReadThis is biggest heartbreak Phogatrsquos disqualification leaves India reelingVinesh had opted to train with Akos and the government of India had cleared his travel along with Vinesh for the Paris Olympics 2024Akos like the Indian national coaches was granted fullaccess accreditationIt cannot be denied that Akos has played a key role in reshaping Vineshs gameHe has been working with the star Indian wrestler since 2018 bringing in technical and tactical changes to her game Vinesh has won two World Championship bronze medals with himThat Vinesh was on top of her game was evident when she trumped unbeaten Yui Susaki employing a strategy of playing a waiting game and executing a matchwinning move in the dying moments of the matchSitting in Vineshs corner Akos was seen crying when she sealed her spot in the finalThe WFI President said the federation will allow only UWW certified coaches to train the Indian wrestlers going forwardThe Wrestling Federation of India will try their best to hire coaches who have cleared the level 1 and level two courses of the UWW We will also ensure that the wrestlers practice with the coaches of WFI and officials of the UWW so that such episodes never happen ever again he saidAsked specifically will WFI allow personal coaches or not Singh said the matter will be discussedThe entire WFI committee will decide how to move forward with this matterSingh said he is holding a meeting with IOA President PT Usha and they will approach UWW chief Nenad Lalovic to see if anything can be doneI spoke to the IOA Indian Olympics Association and the UWW United World Wrestling and I even sent letters asking them to look into the matter and allow her to compete he saidLater the Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made a statement in the Lok SabhaMandaviya said the government had provided a financial assistance of Rs 70 lakh to Vinesh in the buildup to the Games for training and competitions abroad where she travelled with her support staff that included Akos Lombard Ashwini Jeevan Patil Physio Manyank Singh mental conditioning expert and Arvind sparring partnerThey trained in Spain France and HungaryThe minister also said in the Tokyo Olympic cycle she was provided financial assistance of more than Rs 1 crore 13 lakhWith agency inputs