The first day of the 37th sub-junior (under-17) national wrestling at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi was dominated by Haryana with 245 points, while hosts Maharashtra secured second place with 150 points.
On the first day of the tournament, girls events were held and Maharashtra bagged nine medals including two silver and seven bronze, bettering their last year’s performance in Andhra Pradesh, of seven medals, two silvers and five bronze.
However, Maharashtra failed to grab a gold medal again and Haryana girls proved their supremacy with nine golds, four silvers and two bronze medals.
“Our performance in the sub-junior category is improving and yet we need to raise our performance to match Haryana. It will take time but surely our performance in improving,” said coach Dinesh Gund, who is also an international referee.
Gund, who runs a residential wresting training academy in Alandi, has produced several national and international medallists and on the day, his three wards returned with three bronze medals. Bhagyashree Fand (53kg), Nikita More (43kg) and Radhika Chavan (49kg) grabbed bronze medals in their respective categories.
For Nikita, it was her first national medal, while Radhika had also won bronze in Khelo India Nationals in New Delhi last month. However, the most heartbroken was Bhagyashree. The Ahmednagar wrestler has been training in Alandi for the last three years. This year started on a winning note as she won a gold medal in the school nationals, followed by another gold medal in the Khelo India nationals. She was considered a strong medal contender, but went down to Haryana’s Minakshi by a margin on just one point (5-6).
{{/usCountry}}For Nikita, it was her first national medal, while Radhika had also won bronze in Khelo India Nationals in New Delhi last month. However, the most heartbroken was Bhagyashree. The Ahmednagar wrestler has been training in Alandi for the last three years. This year started on a winning note as she won a gold medal in the school nationals, followed by another gold medal in the Khelo India nationals. She was considered a strong medal contender, but went down to Haryana’s Minakshi by a margin on just one point (5-6).
{{/usCountry}}“I am totally disappointed with my performance. I could have done better, but she was slightly better than me. She is a world cadet bronze medallist and her international exposure gave her a decisive edge. I had been training rigorously for the last three months, but it seems that wasn’t enough. I will try to rectify my mistakes during the India camp,” said Bhagyashree.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s other medal contenders Srushti Bhosale (61kg) and Smita Patil (49kg) justified their reputations by winning a silver medal each. However, they were no match for the power-packed Haryana wrestlers and went down tamely without scoring a single point. Srushti Bhosale went down to Haryana’s Anshu 0-10 while Smita lost to Jeevika (Har) by an identical score.Smita had won gold at the school nationals and bronze at the Khelo India nationals this year. She trains with Sandeep Patil at Shinganapur. and Dadashabe Lavate at Loknete Sadhashiv Rao Mandlik Sai Akhara, Murgud, Kolhapur.
This year she was also runner-up in the Bharat Kesari held in Halyal, Karnataka in January.
“She has trained well and we were hoping for silver medal as in the final there was little chance against Anshu, who won a world cadet gold medal in Athens,” said Lavate, Srushti’s coach.