Asian Wrestling Championships: Deepak Punia and Antim Panghal to lead Indian men's and women's squads

World Championship medalists Deepak Punia, Anshu Malik, Sarita Mor, U20 world champion Antim Panghal, and U23 world champion Aman Sehrawat are among the wrestlers in India's Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 team. Earlier, they were selected through national trials held in New Delhi on Friday and Saturday.

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Moreover, the 36th edition of the Asian Wrestling Championships will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from April 9 to 14. It was to be held in New Delhi but was shifted abroad due to the pending investigation by the Indian Sports Ministry against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The national tests, held at the Indira Gandhi Arena, were conducted under the supervision of a centrally-appointed monitoring committee instead of the WFI.

Meanwhile, Deepak, a Tokyo Olympian and 2021 World Championships silver medalist in 86kg, will wrestle in the 92kg category. While Aman Sehrawat will represent India in 57kg in the absence of Olympic silver medalist Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who pulled out of the Asian Wrestling Championships due to injury. Earlier, on Friday, U23 World Champion Aman defeated Atish Todkar 14-4 in the final to top his favorite division.

However, olympic bronze medalist Bajrang Punia missed the trials. On the other hand, Commonwealth Games champion Naveen Malik (70kg) and national-level champion (74kg) Sagar Jaglan suffered huge upsets in the trials. Naveen was defeated by world junior bronze medalist Mulayam Yadav while Sagar lost to National Games champion Yash Tushir.

Meanwhile, in the absence of veteran Sakshi Malik and Asian and Commonwealth champion Vinesh Phogat, the Indian women's wrestling team will see 19-year-old Antim Panghal leading India's campaign. Antim is the current Asian junior champion and last year became the first female wrestler from India to win gold at the World U20 Wrestling Championships held in Bulgaria. She will also compete in the 53kg category. At the same time, silver medalist at the 2021 World Championships Anshu Malik and bronze medalist in that event in 59kg Sarita Mor will also be some of the top female wrestlers participating in the event.

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Asian Wrestling Championships 2023: Indian Squad

Women:

• Neelam Sirohi (50kg)
• Antim Panghal (53kg)
• Sito (55kg)
• Anshu Malik (57kg)
• Sarita Mor (59kg)
• Sonam Malik (62kg)
• Manisha (65kg)
• Nisha Dahiya (68kg)
• Reetika Hooda (72kg)
• Priya Malik (76kg)

Men's freestyle:

• Aman Sehrawat (57kg)
• Pankaj (61kg)
• Anuj Kumar (65kg)
• Mulayam Yadav (70kg)
• Yash Tushir (74kg)
• Deepak (79kg)
• Jonty Kumar (86kg)
• Deepak Punia (92kg)
• Deepak Nehra (97kg)
• Anirudh Gulia (125kg)

Greco Roman:

• Rupin (55kg)
• Sumit (60kg)
• Neeraj Chhikara (63kg)
• Ashu Bazard (67kg)
• Vikas (72kg)
• Sajan Bhanwala (77kg)
• Rohit Dahiya (82kg)
• Sunil Kumar (87kg)
• Narender Cheema (97kg)
• Naveen Sevlia (130kg)