Paris-bound Antim Panghal frets over her support staff visa delay

NEW DELHI: World Championships bronze medallist wrestler Antim Panghal is worried that her personal coach and other support staff members have yet not got visas for the Paris Olympics. This, she feels, will hamper her preparations for the Games. TOI has learnt that Antim's four-member support staff – coach Bhagat Singh, sparring partner Vikas, masseur Nisha and physio Heera Mundluru – is waiting for the processing of visa by the France Consulate in Delhi.
Singh said they went to the Visa Facilitation Service (VFS) centre at Shivaji Stadium Metro complex on Tuesday but were told by the visa officer that their biometrics could not be done in the absence of an official letter from the consulate. Later, sources revealed that letters for the facilitation of visas to the travelling Indian delegation for the Games had to be sent by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to the consulate. It wasn't done In Antim's support staff's case.
"When we first visited the VFS centre on July 11, the officer there told us that we needed to bring our flight tickets, accommodation details and papers showing the duration of our stay. Today, we went to the centre again with all the details, but the officer refused to collect our biometrics saying he hasn't refused our visa processing request from the consulate," Singh said.
"Later, we were told that IOA has to first send the mail to the consulate in a particular format for each of the support staff member travelling and that mail will then be updated by the consulate in its system before intimating the VFS staff which will then collect our biometrics. When we contacted the IOA, an official there told us that the mail will be sent soon to the consulate. This should have been done much earlier. We can't travel daily from our training base to the VFS centre for this purpose. It is affecting Antim's training," Singh added.
On July 10, IOA president P T Usha had written a letter to the visa officer at the consulate, requesting for the facilitation of the same for Antim's support staff at the earliest.
"The Wrestling Federation of India is sending the following officials to facilitate the Indian wrestling team participating in the 33rd Olympic Games scheduled to be held from 26h July to 11h August 2024 in Paris. All expenses related to their visit will be borne by the Sports Authority of India. I shall be highly grateful if the above officials are granted visas to enable them to travel to Paris," Usha wrote.
However, IOA forgot that details of visa applications needed to be sent in a particular format, failing which the VFS refused to collect the biometrics of Antim's support staff.
"We have now been given an appointment for Aug 2 and our flight for Paris is in the afternoon of Aug 3. Antim was supposed to fly out at least 10 days in advance to Paris but she chose to travel with her support staff. Her bout is on Aug 7, which will leave her with little time to get acclimatised to the conditions there," Singh said.
Antim won the Paris quota for India in 53kg when she won bronze at the Worlds in Sep last.