Indian wrestlers Deepak Punia and Sujeet Kalkal face a race against time to participate in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, due to flight cancellations caused by heavy rains in Dubai. The duo, along with Punia’s coach Kamal Malikov and physiotherapist Shubham Gupta, arrived in Dubai from Dagestan, Russia, on Tuesday evening but have been stranded at the airport since their flight to Bishkek was canceled.
Punia, who competes in the 86kg class, and Kalkal, who fights in the 65kg category, were in high spirits and confident of securing Olympic quotas. However, their plans have been thrown into disarray by the flight disruptions.
“It’s really unfortunate that they are in such a mess. They were raring to go to Bishkek,” said Dayanand Kalkal, Sujeet’s father and coach.
The wrestlers have been forced to spend nights on the airport floor and their diet has been severely compromised. They are surviving on sandwiches and bread, which is not ideal for their weight management.
“Punia was 4-5kgs overweight as on Tuesday and he is trying his best to cut the extra kilos. They had planned to reach Bishkek two days before the trials which would have given him enough time to meet the weight,” said Lalit Kumar, Punia’s coach.
Unable to train properly, the duo has resorted to using a treadmill at the airport for cardiovascular workouts.
If they manage to board a flight on Thursday, they will arrive in Bishkek early Friday morning and will have to rush to the competition venue for weigh-ins scheduled at 8am. The bouts will follow later in the day.
“Even if they make the weigh-in, expecting them to make the final and earn a quota will be too much,” said Dayanand.
The wrestlers considered flying to India and then taking a direct flight to Bishkek, but all flights to India were delayed by at least six hours.
Other Indian wrestlers, including Aman Sehrawat (57kg) and Vinesh Phogat (50kg), have already reached Bishkek. So far, India has only one Paris quota in wrestling, won by Antim Panghal in the 53kg division.
