Wrestling federation in a fix over China's participation in Asian Championships

NEW DELHI: India stare at a situation where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could deprive the country of hosting international events if the visas are not granted to wrestlers and officials from China for the Asian Championships beginning here on Tuesday. Denial of visas could be tantamount to violating the Olympic charter and lead to sanctions from the IOC, as well as from United World Wrestling (UWW).
While the situation in China due to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus is grave, the Chinese Wrestling Association (CWA) has assured the UWW and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) that all its wrestlers and accompanying delegates had been tested and quarantined and that none of them has been infected by the virus.
As things stand on Friday, there has been no response to WFI’s several reminders to the Indian health ministry, ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the Indian High Commission in Beijing regarding visa applications of the Chinese delegation – 30 wrestlers and 10 support staff. The High Commission has stopped processing visas of Chinese citizens applying for India visit and suspended its e-visa facility on February 3.
The Indian government is worried that giving visas to the Chinese could compromise the safety and well-being of its own citizens. The WFI believes that the possibility of granting visas to Chinese grapplers is as good as over, but it would like to wait till Monday for the final confirmation.
WFI has two immediate worries to ponder over. It fears strict sanctions by the UWW, possibly taking away the hosting rights of future events, including barring the Indian contingent of Tokyo Olympics hopefuls from competing in the Asian region qualifier, earlier scheduled for next month.
The IOC may bar India from hosting international events, as it did when Pakistani shooters were denied visas for the New Delhi World Cup last year.
The UWW recently wrote a mail to the WFI, a copy of which is with TOI, categorically stating that “athletes and all delegation members from Team China will be allowed on the territory for their participation in the event” and that “should isolation be required for athletes and delegates from China ahead of the event, wrestling training facilities will be provided by the organisers for the time of such isolation”.
This letter was in reference to the Asian Olympic Games qualifier, which was scheduled in Xian, China, from March 27-29 but had to be moved out following the coronavirus outbreak. However, the letter’s terms and conditions applied to both the New Delhi Asian Championships and the World Qualifier in Sofia.
The UWW had asked the host association (WFI) to provide written guarantees from the health ministry and the sports ministry for hosting the Asian meet and the WFI had provided the same to the world body on February 7. However, this very written guarantee has become a major headache for the WFI and it fears severe sanctions from the UWW. The Chinese delegation had applied for visas long back to compete at the event.
Meanwhile, Pakistan wrestlers would be granted visas in all likelihood after the MHA received clearances from Indian security agencies late on Friday evening following a written undertaking from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).