Hisar wrestler Antim Panghal rebuts report of her staff deportation, clarifies sister, coach fiasco

Gaurav Kanthwal

Chandigarh, August 9

Antim Panghal (53kg) wrestler, who bowed out from the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, has clarified that neither she nor her sister has been detained by police for any reason.

The 19-year-old, in her maiden Olympics appearance, lost to Turkey’s Zeynep Yetgil (0-10) inside 101 seconds in her first bout.

According to Antim, after she lost her bout, she took permission to shift to a hotel with her sister as she was upset and suffering from fever.

She sent her elder sister Nisha, along with Antim's accreditation card, to the Games village to bring her belongings.

As she showed Antim's accreditation to the officials, "They took the card immediately from my sister and later took her to the police station for card verification," Antim said in a video statement.

"Neither me nor my sister were detained by police for any reason. Both me and her are at the hotel right now," she said.

Regarding coaches Bhagat Singh's and Vikas reported altercation with the taxi driver at the hotel, the Hisar wrestler said, "They were coming back from village. I had booked their taxi. When they reached at their destination they did not have enough money (Euros) with them and an argument broke out between them. One of them went to the hotel to get the money from the room but it took time. Meanwhile, the altercation intensified between the coach and the taxi driver."

The two-time junior world champion claimed that the reports of her entourage deportation are not true. "After the bout, I requested the officials to go back home as soon as possible. So they arranged the tickets for me. The tickets were already booked before all this happened."