Wrestlers get 'Gold Luck' send-off ahead of Asian Games

The Indian contingent of wrestlers was accorded a warm send-off by the principal sponsors of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), wishing the grapplers 'Gold Luck' ahead of the upcoming Asian Games here at a city hotel on Sunday.

Brij Bhushan Singh, president of WFI, said, "Wrestling has always given us a good number of medals. We are expecting our grapplers to make us proud once again. I am sure they will have a better harvest this time at Jakarta than they had at Incheon Games, four years ago. All my WFI team of officials and I wish them good luck."

Talking about Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia, the president said, "Punia is the replacement of Yogeshwar Dutt for Olympics. The way he is being trained under the guidance of Yogeshwar Dutt, it is quite clear that Yogeshwar wants to live his dream by seeing Punia winning gold at Olympics."

Speaking to ANI, Punia said, "He has trained well for Asian Games and ready to bring glory for the country. Yogeshwar Dutt is my mentor and he wants to fulfill his dream."

Other wrestlers like Sakshi Malik, Pooja Dhanda, Vinesh Phogat, Pawan, Harpreet also expressed their plan for the Asian Games. While speaking to ANI, they said that they are ready for the games and are eyeing medal for the country.

A total of 572 athletes, including 312 male and 260 female athletes, will be participating in the event in 36 different sports categories. The contingent will be led by Chef de Mission Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

The Asian Games is slated to be held from August 18 to September 2 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.

Here are the complete squads:

Men's Freestyle: Sandeep Tomar (57 kg), Bajrang Punia (65 kg), Sushil Kumar (74 kg), Pawan Kumar (86 kg), Mausam Khatri (97 kg) and Sumit (125 kg). Greco-Roman: Gyanender (60 kg), Manish (67 kg), Gurpreet Singh (77 kg), Harpreet Singh (87 kg), Hardeep Singh (97 kg) and Naveen (130 kg).

Women's Freestyle: Vinesh Phogat (50 kg), Pinki (53kg), Pooja Dhanda (57kg), Sakshi Malik (62 kg), Divya Kakran (68kg) and Kiran (76kg).