India grapplers' impressive show in CWG continues

Indian grapplers gave the nation more reasons to cheer as they rounded off another good day by bagging fours medals, including one gold, in the Greco-Roman style wrestling competition at the Commonwealth Games, here today.

Indian grapplers gave the nation more reasons to cheer as they rounded off another good day by bagging fours medals, including one gold, in the Greco-Roman style wrestling competition at the Commonwealth Games, here today.

HT Image

Rajender Kumar won gold in the 55kg category while Manoj Kumar (84kg) had to be content with a silver medal. Sunil Kumar and Dharmender Dalal bagged bronze medals in the 66kg and 120kg categories respectively.

Rajender started the medal rush for the hosts, overpowering Pakistan's Azhar Hussain 11-0 in a one-sided final to fetch the gold and then Sunil overwhelmed Brett Hawthorn of Wales 14-0 in bronze medal play-off bout.

Manoj, however, failed make it two golds for India as he lost to Joe Efionayi Agbonavbare 2-7 in hard-fought final of the 84kg.

Dharmender drew curtains to the day on a high, clinching bronze in the 120kg after blanking Varntan Aparian of Cyprus 12-0 in the play-off bout.

It all started with Rajender's gold as he showed great class against Azhar and raced to 5-0 lead in the opening period, flipping his Pakistani rival twice.

Jolted by Rajender's lead, Azhar came out on an aggressive mood in the second period and even brought blood from his opponent's nose with some dangerous play.

Despite suffering a hard blow Rajender kept his nerves and pinned his opponent in the second period to pocket the gold.

Rajender had earlier defeated Sri Lanka's Kumara Yaparathna 14-0 in the qualification round and then outclassed Canadian Promise Mwenga, who won the bronze, 11-0 in the semifinal.

However, it was disappointment for the hosts in the 84kg final as Manoj lost to Agbonavbare.

Manoj found Agbonavbare a tough nut to crack as the Nigerian surged ahead with a 0-4 lead after flipping the Indian twice in the opening period.

The Indian, however, came back strongly in the second period and scored two points to reduce the margin. But Agbonavbare proved too strong for Manoj as he pocketed three more in the third period to pocket the gold.

Wrestling has so far fetched seven medals for India in the Games with Ravinder Singh (60kg), Sanjay (74kg) and Anil Kumar (96kg) clinching gold medals in their respective Greco-Roman categories yesterday.