India Finished in Second Spot on the Medal Table with 6 Golds, 1 Silver & 5 Bronze Medal.
A strong Indian contingent took part in the Secong Ranking series held in Almaty Kazakhstan last week. olympic medalist Ravi Dahiya had to withdraw along with two other Greco Roman wrestlers just before the competition due to health issues. The star Studded lineup boasted of names like Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Sakshi Malik, Divya Kakran & Sarita Mor.
Greco Roman Wrestlers with Dissapointing Results.
Just before the start of the competition India had to withdraw two Greco Roman Wrestlers Vikas GR72 & Sajan GR77. India fielded a total of 8 wrestlers in the remaining categories but it was only Neeraj in the 63Kg category who returned with a medal. The other wrestler who looked impressive was Arjun in the 55kg. He won his first match against the Runner up of 2019 World Championships but lost to the eventual champion from Iran Pouya. Arjun played the Bronze Medal match but lost it to Azizov from Tajikistan.
Gyanender GR60, Sachin GR67 & Sunil GR87 lost in the first round itself and their opponents could not make it to Final hence they were out of the competition. Satish GR130 got into the Bronze Medal match by virtue of his opponent reaching the Finals but he was comprehensively beaten by Ali Akbar from Iran 0-9.
Source Sai Media
Neeraj in the GR63 category lost his first match in the competition but then he made it past the repechage round to win the Bronze Medal against Uyar from Turkey.
Summary of Results
- 55kg Arjun – lost bronze medal match
- 60kg Gyanender – lost pre-quarterfinals match
- 63kg Neeraj – won bronze medal match
- 67kg Sachin – lost pre-quarterfinals match
- 82kg Harpreet – lost quarterfinals match
- 87kg Sunil – lost pre-quartefinals match
- 97kg Deepanshu – lost repechange match
- 130kg Sunil – lost bronze medal match
This category was dominated by Iran as they won the team championship closely chased by host.
Women wrestlers shine as they bag Eight Medals including Five Gold
The headline of the campaign has to be the way Sakshi Malik fought. Although there was no Japanese contingent the field had reasonable competition. India failed to medal only in two categories, WW50 & WW53.
Neelam looked out of ideas against the Mongolian wrestler Dolgorjav who was the Bronze medalist of the 21 World Championships. She lost 2-3 and unfortunatly the mongolian wrestler couldnt reach the Finals hence ending Neelam’s campaign.
Pooja Gehlot in the WW53 category lost her quarterfinals match against Leyla from Azerbaijan 2-7 and Leyla failed to reach the Finals. The 55kg category saw only five participants and they were divided in two groups. Sushma defeated Ainura to top the group in an exciting finish of 10-8. She then went to lose to Shokhida by fall when the score was 0-9 to move into bronze medal match against Ainura again.
She again defeated her and this time by fall to grab the bronze medal. The 57 category event also had only five participant and like Sushma Mansi also topped the group but she went better. She defeated Laura by technical superiority and then went to win the Gold Medal defeating local hope Emma 3-0 in a closely fought final.
The 59kg also had five wrestlers and Sarita was in great form winning all her bouts in technical superiority to win the Gold Medal.
Sakshi Malik in the 62kg saw only three wrestlers but she looked in great touch, after winning both her group matches by comfortable margins she got a bye in the semifinals. She went to win the finals by fall to clinch the gold medal after five years in an international event.
Manisha took revenge of her defeat against olympian Elis in the Finals to clinch the Gold medal in the 65kg category.
The 68kg category which was represented by Divya had only four wrestlers and Divya did well to win two by fall and managed to be at the top to win the Gold Medal. Bipasha was competing in the 72kg category and that also had only four wrestlers. The Indian wrestler won two bouts but lost the last round to get the Silver medal.
Pooja should consider lucky that despite winning just one match and losing three she still landed with a Bronze Medal.
Summary of Results
- 50kg Neelam – lost Quarterfinals
- 53kg Pooja – lost Quarterfinals
- 55kg Sushma – Won Bronze
- 57kg Mansi – Won Gold
- 59kg Sarita – Won Gold
- 62kg Sakshi – Won Gold
- 65kg Manisha – Won Gold
- 68kg Divya – Won Gold
- 72kg Bipasha – Won Silver
- 76kg Pooja – Won Bronze
Aman Gold & Bajrang’s loss the highlights in Freestyle Men
Ravi had already taken his name out and all eyes where then on Bajrang Punia but he lost his Quarterfinals match in the last moments to Abbos from Uzbekistan who looked better through the bout. Bajrang did go on to win the bronze medal defeating Rifat 7-0 but much was expected from him.
Vishal in the FS70 category did well to reach semifinals but then lost the SemiFinals and the Bronze Medal match. Naveen in the 74kg category won the Quarterfinals match but lost the semis in a close finish 6-7 and then had no answers to the onslaught of Reda Hussain from Egypt in Bronze Medal match.
The ever impressive youngster Gourav Baliyan lost a match 5-17 against Daulet from host country and through the match he was found waiting. Deepak Punia didnt compete in the 86kg category and Viky in the 92kg category lost both the matches. Deepak in the 97 category also had a forgetful day as he lost the olympic bronze medalist Ibragimov 6-11 in the quartefinals.
Source SAI
Mohit did well in the 125kg to win the bronze medal, specially in the medal match he came back from 0-2 down to score a 8-2 victory.
Aman was the star of the day in the freestyle category. He was wrestling with vigor and passion in each bout. He won three of his four bouts comfortably with the fourth being a bye and hence securing a Gold Medal. Aman was the only Male wrestler to win the Gold Medal
Summary of Results
- 57kg Aman – Won Gold
- 65kg Bajrang – Won Bronze
- 70kg Vishal – lost bronze medal match
- 74kg Naveen – lost bronze medal match
- 79kg Gourav – lost Quarterfinals match
- 92kg Viky – lost group match
- 97kg Deepak – lost Quarterfinals match
- 125kg Mohit – Won Bronze.
overall it was a good outing for the women wrestlers but one needs to see the level of competition as well before making any judgments.
