Gandhinagar in Gujarat has been ruled out as the venue for the women's freestyle national preparatory camp for the upcoming international events, a senior official of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said on Saturday (April 26).

"The facilities in Gandhinagar were not conducive to conduct the national camp," the WFI official explained the reason to shift the camp to Delhi.

The two months long national camps in all three formats of wrestling---female freestyle, men's freestyle and Greco Roman will commence from May 1 under the aegis of WFI in coordination with SAI (Sports Authority of India). The WFI has shortlisted four wrestlers in all the weight categories.

The men's freestyle and Greco Roman camp will be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium will be a training venue for the women wrestlers while the accommodation will be at nearby Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. "All necessary arrangements to travel from JNS to IG Stadium have been made," the WFI official added.

It may be recalled that national camps are being conducted after a long gap due to protest against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for alleged harassment of female wrestlers during national camps at SAI Campus in Lucknow. Since then Lucknow has been ruled out as the venue for women's wrestling camp.

The protest in January 2023 was first of its kind and was led by two-time Olympian Vinesh Phogat, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia and Rio Olympic Games medallist Sakshi Malik.

The controversy severely disrupted day-to-day functioning of the national governing body of wrestling in India as the Sports Ministry suspended the WFI for lack of good governance.

Despite fresh election of the WFI in December 2023, new president Sanjay Singh faced an uphill task as the wrestling federation wasn't recognised by the government.

As WFI wasn't recognised by the government the 2024 Paris bound wrestling contingent practiced at different locations as there was no national camp under government umbrella.

However, earlier this year the sports ministry revoked WFI suspension. The government also sanctioned a grant of Rs 30 crore for the year 2025-2026 to prepare the national teams for international exposure.

To avoid any unforeseen incident the WFI has set guidelines particularly for the female wrestlers attending the national camp. "Instead of two female coaches we have appointed three for the women's national camp in Delhi," the WFI official revealed. "The female wrestlers can address any problem they face to the female coaches in the camp or SAI officials at the IG Stadium."

During the national camp, the Indian team will be selected for the third UWW (United World Wrestling) ranking series in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from May 29 to June 1.

The Indian team missed out the first two ranking series in February and March as the sports ministry didn't clear the team.

The main competition this year will be the Senior World Championships from September 13 to 21 in Zagreb, Croatia.