Indians add more wrestling golds

India continued to dominate the wrestling events, picking up four of the five golds on offer on the second day at the R. G. Baruah Sports Complex here on Sunday. Pradeep, Amit Dhankar, Mamta and Manju Kumari outclassed their opponents in the respective categories — men’s 61 kg and 70 kg, and women’s 53 kg and 58 kg respectively — to help India tally nine golds in two days.

Amit Dhankar (in red) after winning the gold medal in the 70kg free style wrestling against Malak Jan of Afghanistan.

India continued to dominate the wrestling events, picking up four of the five golds on offer on the second day at the R. G. Baruah Sports Complex here on Sunday. Pradeep, Amit Dhankar, Mamta and Manju Kumari outclassed their opponents in the respective categories — men’s 61 kg and 70 kg, and women’s 53 kg and 58 kg respectively — to help India tally nine golds in two days.

Pakistan broke the monotony of India’s winning sequence, picking up the men‘s 86kg gold as Mohammad Inam made short work of India’s Gopal Yadav in the concluding final of the day.

India dominated all other events with its wrestlers showing much better technique and application giving little chance to their opponents. Mamta and Manju Kumari were head and shoulders above the challengers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which were the three other countries in the fray, forcing the organisers to make the women’s events round-robin affairs.

Technical superiority

In the men’s category, Amit Dhankar and Pradeep dominated the lesser-weight bouts. Pradeep proved too strong for Abdul Wahab of Pakistan and won the 61kg final on technical superiority. Amit Dhankar, who is trying to make a comeback after winning a series of international medals including Commonwealth and Asian championship golds in the early part of the decade, showed his competence against Malak Jan of Afghanistan and made the 70kg final a one-sided affair.

Mohammad Inam pulled on back for Pakistan in the men’s 86kg where he made a fine comeback against Gopal Yadav. While trailing 1-4 initially, he got Gopal twice on the mat and won the final bout with a handsome 12-4 margin in the end.

The results:

Men: 61kg: 1. Pradeep (Ind) 10 classification score; 2. Abdul Wahai (Pak) 9; 3. Rambabu Yadav (Nep) & Ali Mohammad (Afg) 8.

70 kg: 1. Amit Dhankar (Ind) 10; 2. Malak Jan (Afg) 9; 3. T.K.S. Maduranga (Sri) 8.

86kg: 1. Mohammad Inam (Pak) 10; 2. Gopal Yadav (Ind) 9; 3. Mohammad Rehman (Ban) & Bazhand (Afg) 8.

Women: 53kg: Mamta (Ind) 10; 2. Anusha Kumari Wijesinghe (Sri) 9; 3. Nasema Akhtar (Ban) 8.

58kg: 1. Manju Kumari (Ind) 10; 2. Deepika Dilhane Weerabahu (Sri) 9; 3. Tanjina Masudi (Ban) 8.