The ongoing wrestlers' protests have spilled over to the SAI centre in Sonepat where four-day selection trials to pick up the U-15 and 20 teams for the Asian Championships are currently taking place since Monday.
The trials, overseen by the ad-hoc committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to handle the Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) affairs, were marred by an incident involving a woman coach from Punjab.
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According to the New Indian Express, the conflict arose when the woman coach began taking pictures of the ongoing bouts, prompting a male coach present at the venue to intervene. Allegedly, the male coach, suspecting the woman to be affiliated with the embattled WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, got into a scuffle with her and seized her phone.
"One of the male coaches present at the venue stopped the woman from clicking pictures. Terming her close to the beleaguered WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the male coach engaged in a scuffle with the woman. He even took her phone," a source was quoted by New Indian Express.
Upon learning of the incident, members of the ad-hoc committee and others at the scene intervened and resolved the situation, ensuring the return of the woman's mobile phone.
Despite the commotion, selection trials proceeded for all 10 weight categories in the U-15 and U-20 age groups, with approximately 450 wrestlers competing on the first day. The trials for selecting Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestlers for the championships were held on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, prominent wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat took to social media to express their concerns about potential job security issues within the Indian Railways. Bajrang, a bronze medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, stated that people who had previously belittled their medal achievements were now threatening their employment.
"Those who said our medals were worth `15 each are now after our jobs. Our life is at stake, a job is a very small thing in front of that. If the job appears to create an obstacle in the way of justice, then we will not take even ten seconds to quit it. Do not threaten us with a job," the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist tweeted in Hindi.
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Vinesh Phogat, a two-time World Championships medallist, echoed Bajrang's sentiments in her own Hindi tweet.
Although rumours circulated about Sakshi Malik's resumption of work in the Railways, sources from the Northern Railway confirmed that the three wrestlers, including Sakshi, had indeed resumed their duties on May 30 and 31.