Suspended for absence without notice, Sakshi cites Rakhi festival

By Rohit Mundayur

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik has been reinstated to the national camp at the SAI Centre in Lucknow after she replied to the show cause notice issued by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for leaving the camp without permission. Sakshi (62kg), Seema Bisla (50kg) and Kiran (76kg), all of whom have qualified for the upcoming World Wrestling Championships, were three of the 25 wrestlers who were suspended from the national camp by the WFI for the same reason.

WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar on Monday told IANS that all three wrestlers told the Federation that they had gone home for the festival of Rakshabandhan. "Sakshi said that she had gone home for the festival and admitted that she made a mistake by not taking due permission for it. Seema and Kiran also gave the same reasons. They have replied to the show cause notices and apologised. So now they are back in the camp," he said.

The trio's participation at the Worlds is no longer in doubt.

It had emerged on Saturday that 25 of the 45 wrestlers in the camp were barred by the WFI. They were supposed to assemble on August 16 after the Alexandre Medved event in Minsk, Belarus, but when the attendance was taken only 13 were present. Those who had taken exemptions from the camp had not been barred.

Tomar said that all the wrestlers have replied to the federation and have been told that they can re-join the camp. However, those who had their World Championships trials on Monday were not allowed to participate in the same. While the trials for the Olympic weight categories were held on July 28 in Lucknow, those for the non-Olympic categories were held on Monday.

The World Championships will be held in Kazakhstan from September 14 to 22.

(Rohit Mundayur can be contacted on rohit.m@ians.in)