The Union government on Friday cleared Indian wrestling team’s participation at the World Championships after all the 12 selected athletes assembled outside the residence of Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and sought his intervention, a day after the WFI withdrew the nation’s entries from the prestigious tournament.

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was on Thursday forced to pull all three Indian teams out of the championships after wrestler Satyawart Kadian, husband of Sakshi Malik, approached the court against the federation’s decision to conduct trials for the U23 and senior Worlds.

Kadian contended that since WFI is suspended, it was committing a contempt of court by taking decisions.

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The WFI remains suspended by the ministry and the IOA has refused to re-introduce the ad-hoc panel, leaving the sport and the future of the wrestlers in limbo. The world governing body UWW has, though, lifted suspension of the WFI in February this year.

“A group of wrestlers met me and apprised me of the issue and their concern. I gave the direction that the court matter will continue in court but the wrestlers must compete in World Championships. They should get this opportunity. Whatever and wherever I needed to speak, I have done that,” Mandaviya told reporters.

The gathered bunch of wrestlers met the minister along with WFI president Sanjay Singh. The interaction lasted about an hour.

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“We discussed the issue with the minister, who assured that they will take responsibility if a contempt charge is levelled on the federation and cleared the participation of the team. Tickets have already been booked and the team will depart as scheduled on Sunday morning,” Sanjay Singh said.

Asked if the government has also assured on lifting the suspension, Sanjay Singh said, “The ministry has said it will review it. It may take a one month or so.”

Mandaviya though remained non-committal and did not give a clear answer.

“The government is clear, all federations can work as they want, the government only helps them. Sports should grow in the country and our players should do well both at national and international level,” he said.

During the day, all 12 wrestlers who won the trials for the World Championships sat outside the residence of the minister and sought his intervention.

“It takes 10-12 years to reach this stage where you get to qualify for the World Championships and now this opportunity is being snatched away from us. What is our fault?” Mansha Bhanwala, who made the cut in the women’s 65kg category, told PTI earlier in the day.

“These protesting wrestlers are done with their careers, why are they playing with ours? The junior wrestlers do not need their support. If we are not sent for the World Championships, we will begin a protest of our own,” she said.

Manisha, winner of two bronze medals at the Asian Championships, was relieved that they will now travel to Albania for the competition.

“We explained the issue to minister sir. He listened to us patiently. He assured us all the help. He even discussed how the government plans to support the athletes when India will host the Olympics,” she said after the meeting.

Manisha was accompanied by fellow women wrestlers Mansi Ahlawat (59kg), who won a gold in Almaty and a bronze medal at the UWW Ranking Series event last year in Tunis, Kirti (55kg) and Bipasha (72kg).

Four men’s freestyle wrestlers Udit (61kg), Manish Goswami (70kg), Parvinder Singh (79kg), Sandeep Mann (92kg) and as many Greco-Roman exponents Sanjeev (55kg), Chetan (63kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg) and Rohit Dahiya (82kg) also sat on the pavement outside the minister’s residence after travelling all the way from Haryana.

The wrestlers had first moved court but they were told that their petition can’t be heard on Friday and they can get a hearing date.

They then moved to the sports minister’s residence but could meet him only in the evening.

The WFI had cited government “interference” in its autonomy while conveying to world governing body UWW that it was withdrawing its entries.

The senior World Championship in 12 non-Olympic categories is scheduled to be held in Tirana, Albania, from October 28.

The WFI had recently announced selection trials for the U23 and World Championships, which was challenged as contempt of court by the protesting wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart, who had questioned the legality of the selection by the WFI.

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In a chaotic Mexican Grand Prix, penalties shake up the World Championship standings as Ferrari claims first and third. Alex Kalinauckas and Stuart Codling dive into Max Verstappen’s controversial moves, Lando Norris’s impressive second-place finish, and Ferrari’s under-the-radar success.

00:00 Welcome to the Mexico GP Recap

00:19 Ferrari’s Stunning 1st and 3rd Finish

00:56 Controversial Driving Standards Debate

01:13 Max Verstappen’s Double Penalty

02:39 FIA’s Penalty Inconsistency

04:05 Red Bull’s Struggles in Mexico

06:35 Mercedes Close Racing Battle

07:24 Ferrari’s Secret to Winning Quietly

10:31 Looking Ahead to Qatar GP

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BEACH Volleyball stars Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss are a dynamic duo known for their long reign of unbeatable play in world competitions.

The pair sadly experienced a massive loss at the Paris 2024 Olympics – but who is Kloth’s other beach volleyball half?

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Who is Kristen Nuss?

Kristen Nuss is an American beach volleyball player who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Taryn Kloth.

She has competed in various world-class volleyball competitions, including FIVB World Tour/Pro Beach tour.

She and Kloth are ranked No.2 in the world and are the first beach volleyball pair to ever go for Olympic gold without any connection to California.

Early Life

Born in December 1997, Nuss grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and is the youngest of four children.

Her parents are Audrey and George, and she has three older brothers, Pete, Jeffrey and Jordan.

Nuss has always been a massively talented athlete – even in her early life.

In high school, Nuss led Mount Carmel Academy to three indoor volleyball and two basketball state titles.

Nuss was also a LHSAA Division I MVP and Gatorade Player of the Year candidate for indoor volleyball.

Despite her successes in various sports, she knew she wanted to do beach volleyball.

In 2017 Nuss attended the notorious sports college Louisiana State University, where she quickly found her feet in the beach volleyball world with another freshman, Claire Coppola.

The dynamic duo accumulated nine wins over NCAA ranked teams – unbelievably including a whopping seven against the top 10 ranked teams.

In their freshman season, they even won 20 of 21 matches, ending with a 27-7 record.

For this, they got named to Volleyballmag.com’s All-America team.

After winning various championships and awards back-to-back over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Nuss began to train with Taryn Kloth.

Kloth was an indoor volleyball player for Creighton who has transferred over to LSU.

Together, the Olympians went on to finish with an unbelievable 36-0 record in 2021 – the second ever team to complete an undefeated season and the NCAA title.

Not only did Nuss finish college with record-breaking stats, she also graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology.

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The star also ended her college career with 136 total victories, three CCSA Pair of the Year and AVCA All-American awards, two USA Volleyball Collegiate Beach Championships and Volleyballmag.com’s Player of the Year.

Paris 2024 Olympics

Upon Nuss and Kloth’s graduating in 2021, they immediately turned into professional beach volleyball players with the aspiration of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The pair opted to stay in New Orleans instead of doing what most players do and move to Southern California.

After various impressive Pro Tour wins, the pair qualified for the Olympics.

While initially having an unbeaten run, the pairs streak ended with a 21-19, 21-18 loss to Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson.

Pro Tour wins

Nuss has a total of 12 medals – seven of which are gold, three silver and two bronze.

After graduating from LSU, she and Kloth struggled to qualify for international tournaments before getting Gold in the 2022 BPT Coolangatta Futures.

Nuss and Kloth then gained momentum and beat the Tokyo Silver Medalists, Australians Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy and were on track to Gold at the 2022 BPT Kusadasi Challenge.

By 2023 the pair won two of their first four World Tournaments, impressively following those by achieving three medals in five tournaments during the European leg of the tour.

Soon Nuss and Cloth were sailing to win Gold at the World Tour Finals and were unbeatable – reaching the No.2 FIVB ranking and qualifying for the Olympics.

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Exeter now have some respite from their league woes with the Premiership Rugby Cup taking over during the autumn international period.

With Chiefs missing just England’s Henry Slade and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, along with Wales’ Christ Tshiunza, Baxter says he will set to work trying to fix his side’s problems.

They face a trip to Championship side Cornish Pirates on Friday before hosting second-tier Hartpury the following week and then meeting Gloucester in their third pool game.

“This is like a mini pre-season for us,” Baxter said.

“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do and there’s going to be a lot of good, hard training sessions and there’s going to be lot of players getting good game minutes until we settle into a way of playing that we’re comfortable with.

“It’s very hard. I don’t like this. I don’t like seeing the players looking the way they’re having to look because of the levels of performance and the results.

“What do you do? Do you hide yourself away and run away from it or do you get on with it? Right here and now we’re going to get on with it.”

Spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan suppressed England’s batting attack inside three days and earned Pakistan a long-awaited and series-clinching nine-wicket win in the third and final Test in Rawalpindi on Saturday.

The 38-year-old left-arm spinner Ali and off-spinner Khan, 31, had grabbed all 20 wickets on a recycled second Test pitch to level the series last week and yet again clipped the batters on an engineered dry surface by sharing 19 wickets as England were dismissed for 112 on Day 3.

It was England’s lowest innings total in Pakistan, eclipsing their previous score of 130 all out in Lahore in 1987.

Pakistan, who got a meaningful 77-run first innings lead, reached 37/1 at the stroke of lunch to notch their first home series win since 2021 when they beat South Africa 2-0.

Skipper Shan Masood (23 not out), who lost six successive Test matches as captain before England got beaten in the second Test, sealed the win with a six over long-off against Shoaib Bashir after smashing four successive boundaries off Jack Leach.

Leach grabbed the only wicket to fall when he successfully went for an lbw television referral against Saim Ayub, who made eight.

The win was a sweet revenge for the home team, which was knocked over by England 3-0 when it last toured Pakistan two years ago under the captaincy of Ben Stokes.

England’s batting folded meekly against the spin duo for the second time around as Ali followed his three wickets in the first innings with 6/42 on a wicket which was dried out by industrial-sized giant fans and outdoor heaters.

Khan grabbed 4/69 to add to his first innings six-wicket haul as England batters couldn’t negotiate the variable bounce and the turn Khan and Ali extracted of the pitch.

England won the first Test by an innings and 47 runs before Pakistan succeeded in their ploy to reuse the same surface in Multan to counter England’s aggressive batting and recalled both Ali and Khan for the remaining two Tests.