On the last day of the SAF wrestling competitions on Monday Gaurav Baliyan (74kg) and one more super-mom of the Indian team Anita Sheoran (68kg) will be in action. The question on everyone’s lips would be, can India keep the record of winning gold medals in Nepal perfect and intact.
Indian wrestlers are participating in 14 categories and have already won 12 gold medals. All 12 wrestlers in action till now have won nothing else than gold for the country. Now the eyes will be on Gaurav Baliyan who just became national champion in 74kg category and Anita Sheoran who will compete in the 68kg.
Earlier the Indian wrestlers golden show continued on the day 3 of the wrestling competition in the South Asian Federation games wrestling competitions. India once again kept the perfect record of winning gold medal in each category they have entered by winning 4 more gold medals on Sunday. Today was the turn of Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik (WW 62Kg), U23 World Silver medallist Ravinder (61kg), Anshu (59kg) and Pawan Kumar (86kg) to register gold medals for India. India has entered 12 wrestlers in the competition till Sunday and all 12 have won gold medals for the country that too with tremendous ease.
Sakshi Malik (62kg) & Anshu (59kg) wins gold
Out of form Rio medallist Sakshi Malik was too good for this level as the Indian champion won all the bouts with 10-0 margin or by pinning down the opponents to win the gold medal for the country. Same was the case for Anshu in the 59kg category. The competition levels were so abysmal that not even once the opponent wrestlers from countries like SriLanka, Nepal and Bangladesh looked liked scoring even single point against the Indian girls. Anshu won her final bout against the wrestler from Sri-Lanka in record 15seconds. Sakshi won her first bout against the Sri-Lankan wrestler in 38secs and against wrestler from Bangladesh in under 90 seconds.
Ravinder (61kg), Pawan Kumar (86kg) defeats Pakistan wrestlers to win Gold
In the men’s category some interest was generated because of the presence of wrestlers from Pakistan. But that presence and challenge wasn’t enough to stop the winning march of both Ravinder and Pawan from winning gold medals.
In the 61kg – Ravinder was too strong for his opponents. After routing Bangladeshi and Sri-Lankan wrestler in the first two rounds, it was expected that M.Bilal from Pakistan will give him some fight. Ravinder started little slow and survived some anxious moments against Bilal. The first round ended with score 2-2. In the second round Ravinder proved his superiority to clinch the bout and gold medal for India.
In the 86kg – Pawan Kumar was in some trouble initially against the national champion from Pakistan. His experience kept him in good stead as he finally registered hard-fought victory by 4-1 to clinch gold.
SAF GAMES 2019 Wrestling : Gold Medal Winners for India
FS 57 Kg – Rahul Kumar
FS 61 Kg – Ravinder
FS 65 Kg – Amit Dhaiya
FS 86 Kg – Pawan Kumar
FS 97 Kg – Satywart Kadian
FS 125Kg – Sumit Malik
WW 50 kg – Sheetal Tomar
WW 53 kg – Pinki
WW 57 kg – Sarita Mor
WW 59 kg – Anshu
WW 62 kg – Sakshi Malik
WW 76 kg- Gursharanpreet Kaur.
MONDAY – Two more Indians will be in line for Gold Medals
FS 74 Kg – Gaurav Baliyan
WW 68kg: – Anita Sheoran
Watch the Indian wrestlers LIVE at South Asian Federation Games 2019 only on WrestlingTV.in
