Encouraged by the recent medal hauls in the Asian junior and cadet championships, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is planning to groom up-and-coming wrestlers for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The Indian wrestlers had gathered 17 medals in the Asian junior event in Phuket, Thailand, in June last. They had collected 15 medals from the Asian cadet championship in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

'We are planning to hire foreign coaches who will train the juniors. We have got enough time before the next Olympics. If these kids are groomed well, they will become polished and much improved by the next Olympics,' said WFI secretary Raj Singh, who himself has coached several top wrestlers.

Raj Singh, who is one of the contenders for this year’s Dronacharya Award for lifetime achievement, said young wrestlers in lower weight divisions needed good care. 'We have been strong in lower weight categories and the competition has been good in these weights. We have to prepare these wrestlers for bigger tests ahead.'

National camp

In a departure from the general practice, the WFI has decided to set up the National camp in Budapest ahead of this year’s World championship in the Hungarian capital in September next.

'We learnt a lot from the London Olympics. Our wrestlers got good exposure (in the USA and Belarus) and we returned two medals from the Games. We are trying to send the team (along with some sparring partners) almost a month before the World championship. I hope the Sports Authority of India (SAI) does not have any problem as this will help our wrestlers get acclimatised and provide them some valuable training opportunity with competitors from other countries.

'Since this will be the first major event for the senior team after the rule changes, we have to see how well our wrestlers adapt to the new rules.'

Meanwhile, London Olympics bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt has been ruled out of the World championship after aggravating his knee injury. 'He is likely to have a surgery to fix the problem,' said Raj Singh.