Wrestling Federation of India recently banned promising freestyle female wrestler Neha Sangwan for being overweight during U20 Worlds in Bulgaria. If Aman Sehrawat is banned, he will miss the 2026 Asian Games.
India’s Paris Olympics bronze medallist in men’s 57kg freestyle event, Aman Sehrawat, is staring at a ban for missing out weighing-in during the ongoing Zagreb World Wrestling Championships in Croatia. He was 1.7kg overweight and could not reduce those additional kilos by the time of weighing in, a senior Wrestling Federation of India official told Sportsbackstory.com.
Sehrawat is India’s potential medal winner at the 2026 Asian Games. If the Olympics bronze medallist is banned for two years like Neha, his ban will end in 2027. He will certainly miss next year’s Asian Games. “WFI (Wrestling Federation of India) can’t have two sets of rules for two individual wrestlers having similar issues of failing to control weight before the weighing-in at the international level,” says the WFI official. India didn’t make any representation in men’s 57kg freestyle weight at the global competition in Croatia.
“Aman is in Zagreb at the moment. When the Indian team returns home, a WFI panel will decide the action to be taken against him,” WFI official adds.
As per rule of the world governing body, United World Wrestling, if any competitor is overweight at the time of weighing-in he/she is not eligible to compete in their respective category and his first match is recorded as a forfeiture.
The WFI is taking Sehrawat’s overweight issue seriously. “Action will be taken. Rule book is the same for all the wrestlers,” was the WFI official’s response.
In the previous case, promising teenager Neha Sangawan was overweight by more than 500g in 59kg during weighing-in at U20 World Championships held in Bulgaria in August. She was disqualified and dropped from the senior world championships team. Subsequently, she was banned for two years for failing to manage her weight.
It may be recalled that India’s Worlds medallist and three-time Olympian Vinesh Phogat was overweight prior to her final 50kg bout at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and was disqualified.
Since then WFI hasn’t come out with a comprehensive policy to tackle overweight issues amongst the elite wrestlers. “During domestic competitions the WFI should follow a similar pattern of weighing-in as Olympic or Worlds events so that players get used to international guidelines and are more disciplined to controlling their weight,” says a coach familiar with the situation. Reducing weight is a common practice in combat sports like wrestling and boxing. It will be interesting to follow Sehrawat’s case in the coming days.
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