‘Slapped, punched as well…’: Wrestler Satender Malik assaults referee during WFI trials for India men’s team-Sports News , Firstpost

The incident happened at the KD Jadhav Hall of the IG Stadium when a controversial decision taken by the referee during the 125kg final turn into a brawl. (Photo Credits: Vinay Siwach/Twitter)

Wrestling Federation of India’s trials for Commonwealth Games and World Championships took an ugly turn during the men’s trials in New Delhi on Tuesday when senior referee Jagbir Singh was physically assaulted by 125kg category grappler Satender Malik.

The incident happened at the KD Jadhav Hall of the IG Stadium when a controversial decision taken by the referee during the 125kg final turned into a brawl. Satender, who was leading 3-0 at that time with 18 seconds to go, was pinned into a move called take down by rival Mohit Grewal, who also forced him out of the mat.

However, the mat referee Virender Malik granted Mohit just a point as he was uncertain on the move. Mohit then requested for a video referral and it went in favour of the wrestler, who held the remaining seconds of the bout to win by the virtue of taking the last points.

Speaking to Firstpost after the assault, referee Singh said he had no clue that he will be assaulted by grappler, who lost his temper after losing his weight category final in the closing seconds of the match following a video referral decision going against him.

“I wasn’t expecting him to assault me when I saw him approach me as we all know each other since long through national trials and competitions,” Singh said. “I was sitting when he came to me and started using cuss words and soon slapped me and punched me as well.”

The referee, had one of his eyes appearing blood red but clarified it has nothing to do with the assault that happened and added that he is certain of a life ban on the wrestler.

“It’s upto WFI to take decisions on the matter but it happened in broad daylight in front of many witnesses. In assaults like these WFI normally bans the athlete for life.”

WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has already banned the wrestler for the “unacceptable” behaviour, confirmed WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar.

“Such behaviour from a wrestler is unacceptable. WFI president Brij Bhushan ji was already present at the venue and has already banned the wrestler. We have encouraged the referee to lodge an FIR against the wrestler,” said Tomar during a short conversation over the phone.

Ravi, Bajrang and Deepak book CWG berths

The incident happened at a time when most of the crowd’s focus was on 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver-medallist Ravi Dahiya, who was fighting for a place in the 57kg category on the other mat of the venue at the same time. Dahiya went on to win the final bout by technical superiority (10-0) against Vijay Patil to book his CWG berth.

Bajrang Punia, whose knee injury was in spotlight at the April’s Asian Championships, appeared in a defensive mode once again as he won the final bout by a margin of a point 2-1 in his forte 65kg category.

Fellow Asian Championship silver medallist Deepak Punia enjoyed his dominance in 86kg category with a 6-0 win over Sanjeet in the final.

However, another Asian silver winner Gourav Baliyan couldn’t book his CWG spot as he went down to Naveen in the 74kg final. Gourav appeared hot favourite to grab the CWG spot as he defeated 2010 CWG gold medallist Narsingh Yadav by technical superiority (12-2) but couldn’t get the better of Naveen, who defeated experienced wrestlers like Jitender Kumar and Sagar Jaglan before winning the final.

2014 CWG silver medallist Satyawart Kadian won’t be joining his wife Sakshi Malik in Birmingham as he fell in the semi-final to senior debutant Deepak, who sealed his CWG berth with a 10-0 win over Sahil in the final.

Earlier on Monday, Sakshi (62kg), Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Divya Kakran (68kg), Pooja Gehlot (50kg) and Pooja Sihag (76kg) qualified among women’s freestyle wrestlers for the CWG.

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