24 wrestlers to represent India in Individual World Cup in Serbia

New Delhi, Dec 3 Ravi Kumar, Deepak Punia and Sakshi Malik are among the 24 Indian wrestlers who will be competing in the Individual World Cup scheduled to be held from December 12 to 18 in Belgrade, Serbia.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday informed that India will be sending a 42-member contingent (24 wrestlers, 9 coaches, 3 support staff and 3 referees) to Belgrade for the tournament.

It will be the first international competition that Indian wrestlers will be participating in after the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The participation in the tournament has been sanctioned by the government at an overall cost of more than Rs. 90 lakhs and will include air tickets, boarding and lodging, United World Wrestling licence fees, visa fees and out of pocket allowances for players, coaches and referees," a SAI statement read.

The UWW had last month decided to organise the 'Individual World Cup' as a substitute event for the 'World Championships which could not be hosted this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The following Indian wrestlers will participate in the tournament:

Men's freestyle: Ravi Kumar (57 kg), Rahul Aware (61 kg), Naveen (70 kg), Gourav Baliyan (79 kg), Deepak Punia (86 kg), Satyavart Kadian (97 kg), Sumit (125 kg)

Men's Greco-Roman: Arjun Halakurki (55 kg), Gyanender (60 kg), Sachin Rana (63 kg), Ashu (67 kg), Aditya Kundu (72 kg), Sajan (77 kg), Sunil Kumar (87 kg), Hardeep (97 kg), Naveen (130 kg)

Women's: Nirmala Devi (50 kg), Pinki (55 kg), Anshu (57 kg), Sarita (59 kg), Sonam (62 kg), Sakshi Malik (65 kg), Gursharan Preet Kaur (72 kg), Kiran (76 kg)

India have attained a total of four Olympic quotas in wrestling through Bajrang Punia (men's freestyle 65 kg), Vinesh Phogat (women's 53 kg), Ravi Kumar and Deepak Punia.

They will have two more opportunities to attain the remaining quotas at the Asian Qualification tournament scheduled in March 2021 and the World Qualification tournament scheduled from April 29 to May 2, 2021.

( With inputs from IANS )