Indian wrestlers Deepak Punia and Sujeet Kalkal misses participation in Asian Olympic Qualifiers

Indian wrestlers Deepak Punia and Sujeet Kalkal were not allowed to participate in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Bishkek city of Kyrgyzstan on Friday. This is the final qualifying event to secure quotas for the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. 

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There has been a big setback for the Indian wrestling team in the Bishkek Asian Olympic Qualifiers as the country's two of the best wrestlers, Deepak Punia and Sujeet Kalkal, will not be able to participate in this competition as they will not be there on time for weigh-in (wrestlers record their body weight and it is seen whether they are meeting the standards or not). They were stranded at Dubai airport since Tuesday as several flights were delayed or canceled due to heavy rains in the region. The duo, along with Russian coach Kamal Malikov and physio Shubham Gupta, were forced to sleep on the floor and had no access to proper food.

According to the UAE government, the country has received the highest rainfall in 75 years. There was 259.5 mm rainfall on Tuesday. According to the BBC, around 300 flights have been canceled so far and hundreds were delayed. When the Indian wrestlers arrived in Bishkek this morning around 8 AM local time, the organizers refused to allow them to perticipate in the competition. It seems that the chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics is slipping away from them. Punia and Kalkal now have their last chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics, followed by the World Qualifiers to be held next month. 

Fifteen other Indian wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, and Aman Sehrawat have left for Bishkek directly from Delhi, while Punia and Kalkal were traveling alone. Both were training in Dagestan, Russia from 2 to 15 April. On 16 April they flew from Makhachkala to Bishkek via Dubai, which was booked by WFI. 

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Deepak Punia won silver medal at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in the freestyle 86 kg category and earned a place in the 2020 Summer Olympics. At the same time, current U23 Asian champion Sujeet Kalkal has said that if he is pitted against Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat in the trials, he will be able to defeat them. Earlier, Deepak, and Sujeet narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.