Bajrang Punia’s CWG preparations take a hit due to visa woes | Commonwealth Games 2022 News – Times of India

File image of Bajrang Punia during a training camp in SAI Sonipat (Photo: Times Internet)

NEW DELHI: On June 22, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) informed through a release that Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia will be travelling to the Michigan University, USA, to prepare for the Birmingham CWG and World Championships in Serbia. Three days later – on June 25 – SAI organised a virtual press conference with Bajrang, where the wrestler himself informed that he would be flying out to the US the same night for a 35-day training stint to spar with some of the best grapplers available there.
However, on Thursday, it was surprising to see Bajrang sitting in the athletes’ gallery here during the official kit unveiling and ceremonial send-off for the CWG-bound Indian contingent members.
When asked, Bajrang’s response was an angry outburst against the country’s sports administrators for delaying the processing of his visa for England, which, in turn, has affected his overall preparations for the Games.
Because of the delay, the reigning CWG and Asian Games champion hasn’t been able to travel to the US till date.
“The original plan was to leave for the US on June 27. I have a multiple entry US visa for 10 years. After completing my training stint there, I was supposed to directly fly out to Birmingham. So the idea was to get the England visa done beforehand. There was no point coming back to India. But here I am, waiting for my UK visa for the last 10 days,” Bajrang told TOI.
“It’s affecting my training for the CWG but none of the officials seemed concerned about it. There hasn’t been any satisfactory response from either the wrestling federation (WFI) or the IOA. Deepak (Punia) was also supposed to travel to the US but he is also stuck here with me.”
Bajrang informed that the UK visa for other CWG-bound wrestlers is also under process. A WFI official admitted to TOI that there was some delay in applying for visas for CWG-bound wrestlers.