Spain denies visas for 21 Indian wrestlers selected for U23 World Championships

SPAIN has denied visas for 21 Indian wrestlers who were selected for U23 World Championships.

The Wrestling Federation of India says that the country entered 30 wrestlers for the competition, which started on Sunday and is being held in Pontevedra, but applications for 21 of them were rejected by the embassy.

Just nine of the total number of wrestlers were issued a visa by the Spanish Embassy for the competition, which ends on October 23, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Among those denied a visa include gold medal-winning players, including Antim Panghal, who is the first Indian woman to win the gold medal in the junior world championships in the 53 kilograms weight class.

The Wrestling Federation of India criticised the decision to deny the visas, tweeting: “The Indian Wrestling team was ready to participate in the U23 World Championship, but the negative attitude of the Spanish Embassy deprived the Indian team of participating in the Championship.”

The organisation continued by saying that it would complain in writing to the Spanish Embassy and urged the United World Wrestling to not give hosting rights to Spain for any future tournament.

Positive update from Wrestling U23 World Championships 2022

India's only two women wrestlers (who got visa)
Ankush (50kg) and Mansi (59kg)

Both reached Quarterfinals#WrestlePontevedra

— PJMAN SPORTS (@PjmanSports) October 19, 2022

They said: “Wrestling Federation of India will complain in writing to the World Wrestling Federation, criticizing this attitude of the Spanish Embassy. And at the same time, it will also urge that no important wrestling competition should be organized in Spain in future.”

The reason behind the denial is said to be that the embassy had “reasonable doubts” about the intention of the wrestlers to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiry date, according to Sportstar.

The embassy also said that the information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was “not reliable”.

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