MMA star Varun Sanyal has been declared medically unfit to participate in his bout. He passed out at 1 am in the Sauna in an attempt to cut down on weight. He was taken to the hospital, but is now back on the cruise. He was a late addition to the squad and will now return home without participating in the Asian Games.
He was one of the two MMA fighters from India. The other fighter, Suchika Tariyal, won her quarterfinal bout and secured a medal for India in the traditional 60kg category. Varun had restricted his food and fluid intake and was reportedly diagnosed with mild dehydration and muscle cramps.
A Nightmare Campaign For Varun
Missing out on competing at the Asian Games comes as a big setback for Varun, who also faced a nightmare welcome in Japan. Varun had criticised the arrangements for the Asian Games while highlighting the accomodation crisis he faced upon landing in Japan.
“It’s been one crazy day, and it’s still not over. I thought it was done, but it’s not. There’s a lot of chaos with regard to the athletes’ rooms and the assignment of rooms. Had this happened in India, 100% this would be a bigger deal. The media would be running wild with it, and India as a country wouldn’t hear the end of it,” Sanyal said in the video.
“When you get to Nagoya, from the airport they take you on a shuttle… and as soon as you get there, it’s total chaos. I go to the counter… and they just cannot find my name anywhere in the system. Like, I’m a total ghost in their system. This took about two hours… I’m not exaggerating, for two hours they’re running around. By the time we left that facility, it had been three hours. By the way, my situation wasn’t solved,” he added.
“After 2 days of being awake and 10 hours of waiting, I was given a room. I fell asleep for a grand total of 30 minutes before being woken up by 2 Indian athletes staring at me confusedly. Turns out, they were assigned this room but are now stranded,” Sanyal wrote on X.