Commonwealth Games
New Delhi: Indian wrestlers produced a fantastic display on the mat and made a clean sweep in the men’s Greco Roman style with Ravinder Singh, Sanjay and Anil Kumar striking gold in their respective categories at the Commonwealth Games.
Ravinder started the gold rush for India, bagging the first yellow medal wrestling in the 60kg category, beating England’s Christopher Terence Bosson 7-2 in front of the sparse but cheering crowd at the Indira Gandhi indoor stadium.
Sanjay followed Ravinder’s footsteps and got the better of South Africa’s Brian Addinall 2-0 in the 74kg category & then Anil made it 3 out of 3 for the host nation when he defeated Hassene Fkiri of Australia 6-0 in the summit clash of the 96kg to round off an excellent medals tally for Indian wrestlers.
After some initial exchanges, Ravinder scored two quick points to end the opening round with a 2-0 lead. But the real show of his character came in the second round when he found himself twice in a disadvantageous position but displayed sound technical acumen to pocket the encounter.
Earlier in the day, Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang got the maiden gold medals for India in CWG 2010. Then Ravinder came up with another Gold after a thrilling encounter. Just after Ravinder’s victory, Sanjay gave the home fans more reasons to celebrate after beating South Africa’s Addinall in the 74kg final to register India’s second consecutive gold medal in wrestling.
Sanjay displayed a gritty performance and defeated his opponent 2-0. Against Addinall, Sanjay adopted a wait and watch policy and scored points whenever he got a chance. The Indian scored a point each in both rounds to claim his first CWG gold and the anthem played again for the second time.
Sanjay got the better of Samoa’s Ekeroma 3-0 and Perefegha Kiribein of Nigeria 2-0 in his earlier two wrestling bouts. Anil was by far the better wrestler on display and kept his calm to beat his Australian rival 6-0 in the aggressive title decider. South Africa’s Hugues Kakoma Bella-Lufu earned the silver in this category after
Fkiri was disqualified for the silver medal for indecent behaviour. In the final bout against Sanjay, Fkiri was cautioned thrice by the umpire for dangerous play. The Australian repeated the mistake again, forcing the umpire to disqualify him and asked to leave the mat.
Canada’s Eric Feunekes, who lost to Kakoma in the bronze medal play-off bout, was awarded the Bronze in Fkiri’s place. Earlier, Anil had a contrasting opening two bouts as he overpowered Mark Montogomery of N. Ireland 13-0 in his 1st match of the day but later had to work hard to clinch a 3-1 victory over South African Kakoma in the semifinal.
In all, it was a happy ending for Team India on Tuesday in every sport be it rifle shooting, wrestling, boxing or even the historic test match victory against Australia at Mohali. The Indian flag soared high for every occasion.
Tags: Abhinav Bindra, Anil Kumar, Commonwealth Games, CWG, Gagan Narang, Greco-Roman, India, Ravinder Singh, Sanjay, Sports, Sports India, Wrestling
