Spain denies visas to U-23 Indian wrestlers

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, October 17

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is fuming. The Embassy of Spain in New Delhi has rejected visas of the majority of the Indian wrestlers who were to participate in the U-23 World Championships in Ponteverda, Spain.

Only nine wrestlers and 11 members of the support staff received visas. Antim Panghal, the reigning junior world champion in the women’s 53kg category, was amongst those who were denied visas.

Interestingly, the official reason given by the embassy to Antim was “reasonable doubts” to flee. “The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable … there are reasonable doubts as to your intention to leave territory of the Member States before the expiry of visa,” the embassy said in the refusal letter.

Only one wrestler in the men’s freestyle category, two in the women’s section and six in the Greco-Roman category were granted visas. The Greco-Roman wrestlers have already reached Pontevedra.

The WFI had sent all the relevant documents on October 4. However, after not hearing from the embassy and fearing that the Indian team was running out of time, the WFI got in touch with the Spanish wrestling federation president, who assured that the Indians were likely to be issued visas by today.

“We had written to the Spanish wrestling body and they assured us that they have taken up the matter with their embassy here in New Delhi. We were expecting it today but they have rejected the majority of the applications,” Vinod Tomar, assistant secretary of the WFI, said.

The WFI has complained to the United World Wrestling (UWW). “We have written to the UWW and we have said that we were refused visas because of the negative approach of the Spanish embassy. We have also asked them to not allot major championships to countries that refuse visas,” Tomar said.