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Spanish embassy rejects visas for India wrestling squad
The national federation said it will write to United World Wrestling (UWW), the global body of the sport, and request them not to give Spain hosting rights for any future tournament.
India’s best wrestlers will not be able to participate in the U-23 world wrestling championships in Pontevedra, Spain as the Spanish Embassy here has rejected the visa applications of the majority of them, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said on Monday. As many as 21 wrestlers, mostly in freestyle, will miss the tournament.
The national federation said it will write to United World Wrestling (UWW), the global body of the sport, and request them not to give Spain hosting rights for any future tournament.
India have entered 30 wrestlers for the competition but only nine, including six in Greco Roman, got their visas, much to the surprise of WFI. The World Championships started on Monday.
“We will not be able to send our team. The total strength of the squad including wrestlers and support staff was 46. We had submitted the applications on Oct 4 but the women’s team will not be able to board their flight tonight (Monday) because their visas were rejected,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said.
The team included Antim Panghal, who became the first Indian woman to win gold at the U-20 World Championships this season. In fact, Indian girls won five medals at the previous edition of the U-23 Worlds in Poland and were looking to better their performances.
“Antim was a gold medal contender and we were eying a big haul, especially by girls. It was a very important tournament for them but only two girls have got their visas cleared,” said Tomar.
WFI is also upset with the reason given for the ‘Refusal of Visa.’ The rejected application of one of the girls reads, “there are reasonable doubts as to your intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiry of the visa.”
“It has never happened to us that a visa (Schengen) has been rejected for such a reason. We told them that it was an important competition. We wrote to the organisers, informed UWW to speak to the Spanish Embassy. All this was done, yet they did not budge. Are our girls going to escape from their country? We have participated in age group events around the world but nothing untoward has happened. The Spanish Embassy was sitting on visa applications for days and today when we demanded our passports back, they sent it with rejections,” said Tomar.
“We will write to UWW not to give Spain hosting rights in future."
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Spanish Embassy.
