WFI drops Neha from World C’ship squad, hands 2-year suspension
New Delhi, Aug 25: Wrestler Neha Sangwan, who was disqualified from the recent U-20 World Championships for being overweight, was on Monday dropped from the senior World Championships squad and suspended for two years by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for her “consistent weight management issues”. Neha was to compete in women’s 59kg class in Samokov, Bulgaria last week but weighed about 600 grams more than the permissible limit. The organisers disqualified her and India went unrepresented in that weight category due to the transgression. India’s women team won seven medals to finish runner-up behind Japan. Neha, without doubt, was a strong medal contender and could have helped India win the team championship by winning a gold. India finished with 140 points behind Japan’s 165. The WFI has replaced Neha with Sarika Malik, who had finished second in the World Championship trials. The Worlds will be held in Zagreb from September 13-21. (PTI)
Eminent athletes to join pan-India National Sports Day celebrations
New Delhi, Aug 25: Prominent athletes including Sumit Antil, Shreyasi Singh, Bhavani Devi and Vishnu Saravanan will be joining the pan-India celebration for the National Sports Day on August 29 from their home towns or training bases. Pranav Soorma, a Paris Paralympic silver medallist, will also be a part of the festival during which tributes will be paid to hockey icon Major Dhyan Chand, whose birth anniversary is commemorated on that day. In addition, sporting icons like Abhinav Bindra, Sunil Chhetri, Murali Sreeshankar, PV Sindhu, Manika Batra, Mirabai Chanu and others have urged people to participate in the festival. Acting on a call given by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to transform this year’s National Sports Day into a true people’s movement, states and union territories across India have begun their preparations for this celebration. This year the National Sports Day celebrations will be led by the Fit India Mission and organised as a three-day, nation-wide sports and fitness movement from August 29 to 31 under the theme ‘Ek Ghanta, Khel ke Maidan Main’. (PTI)