Written by Firoz Mirza for The New Indian Express
Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) recently submitted a bid with the parent body, United World Wrestling (UWW), expressing interest to host the 2026 U20 World Championships. The recently-inaugurated Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, Gujarat could be the venue if the UWW accepts WFI's bid. Ahead of the tournament, which could be first of its stature in the country, the WFI will hold the 2025 senior national championships at the venue as a test event.
"We had talks with the UWW Bureau in this regard during the Senior World Championships that concluded in Zagreb, Croatia a few days ago. The UWW asked the WFI to file the bid and the same has been done," Sanjay Kumar Singh, the WFI president, told this daily. Singh is also scheduled to visit Ahmedabad to inspect the venue on September 29. The chosen venue had already hosted the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships last month.
India is already a strong contender to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad and presented its proposal to the Evaluation Committee of Commonwealth Sport on Tuesday. Besides, the country has also submitted a bid to host the 2036 Olympics and proposed Ahmedabad as the host city. Hosting U20 wrestling Worlds will only add weight to India's proposals for hosting the two multi-sport events.
Notably, Bahrain's Manama was allotted the championships, which is slated from August 17 to 23 next year. However, Manama also got the hosting rights of the 2026 senior World Championships. It is scheduled from September 5 to 13. But the UWW apparently wanted Bahrain to host either one championships and it has chosen to go with the senior Worlds.
"We got to know about the situation during the Worlds and immediately conveyed our intention to host the U20 Worlds. The UWW will make an announcement in this regard soon," added the WFI president. It was learnt that the world body will decide the venue during the Asian Youth Games slated in Manama from October 28 to 30.
Earlier, the WFI had lobbied hard for the 2025 Asian Championships but the tournament was allotted to Amman, Jordan due to unrest in the administration of Indian wrestling and pending inquiry by the sports ministry against the federation. The 2020 Asian Wrestling Championships was the last international event India hosted.
Meanwhile, the WFI is also hosting selection trials to pick the national team for the U23 World Championships scheduled in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 20 to 27. The trials will be held on October 4 and 5. Given the weight issues Indian wrestlers have faced in the last one year with the latest being disqualification of Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat from the 2025 World Championships, the WFI decided to do away with the two-kg weight concession given to the wrestlers during the trials.