The women’s national camp for wrestling, which was scheduled to begin from Tuesday, was delayed after the players found no place to train.
The wrestling hall at the Netaji Subhas Regional Centre, Sports Authority of India, Lucknow is under maintenance and the wrestlers were restricted to only running and gym on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Top women wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Pooja Dhanda and other national championships medallist are in Lucknow since February 5 but the first session of the camp is yet to be held.
On Thursday, the team trained in the taekwondo hall without the wrestling mats after failing to find a suitable place outside the centre as well.
Wrestling Federation of India assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said that it was a case of mismanagement by the authorities at the SAI centre. “We notified the management in Lucknow that we will begin the camp but they did not want it.
“But we were adamant and told them that we have a set our base there. We tried moving outside the centre to a school but that did not work out.”
The flooring of the wrestling hall is being relaid and hence the mats had to be removed and Tomar said the camp would now continue in the taekwondo hall. “We have now sorted things out by putting the mats in taekwondo hall. The coaches and wrestlers are okay with it.”
The new foreign coach Andrew Cook also joined the camp on Tuesday but hasn’t conducted a single session so far.
When contacted, chief women’s coach Kuldeep Malik said they were hopeful of starting regular training from Friday morning.
Attempts to contact Executive Director, SAI Lucknow, did not bore fruit.
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