Foreign wrestling coaches to be at helm for Asian Games
NEW DELHI : In a bid to boost the medals tally at the Asian Games in Jakarta, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will not rely on homebred coaches to prepare top grapplers. Instead, it is focusing on foreign experts to oversee training.
Despite winning 11 medals, including five gold at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, WFI has acknowledged that competition at the Asian Games will not be a cakewalk, and hence the move towards foreign experts.
India had claimed five medals, including one gold, at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
“We have shortlisted the coaches and they are ready to come. We hope to get the green signal from the Sports Authority of India soon,” said Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary, WFI.
The next camp will commence on May 7 and the WFI hopes it will get the approval by then. The big advantage of having foreign coaches, said Tomar is that they are “technically more superior”. The WFI logic may not go down well with the Indian experts overseeing coaching camps, but it’s no secret that two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar trains only with Georgian coach Vladimir Mestvirishvili, a former national coach.
Currently, former international Jagminder Singh is the men’s freestyle coach, while Kuldip Malik is the women’s coach. Kuldip Singh is overseeing the Graeco-roman camp. The Indian coaches will be expected to assist the foreign experts whenever they take charge.
After India’s below-par per- formance in the 2017 World Championships in Paris, the need for a foreign expert was realised by double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, who was the then government observer.
Former international grappler Kirpa Shankar also attributes India’s success at the Olympic and world level to foreign coaches. “The hard work of Russian and Georgian experts is evident as more grapplers are winning medals at the international level,” said Shankar.