Harya overpower Mumbai in PWL

New Delhi, Jan 2: Harya Hammers enjoyed an excellent start to their campaign with a comprehensive 5-2 victory over defending champions Mumbai Maharathis in the iugural match of the second edition of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) here on Monday.

Rajneesh (65kg), Abdusalam Gadisov (97kg), Jabrayil Hasanov (74kg) Sofia Mattsson (women's 53kg) and Marwa Amri (women's 58kg) won their matches for Harya while skipper Erica Wieb (women's 75kg) and promising youngster Rahul Aware (57kg) wrested some consolation for Mumbai.

It was a contest between the filists of the iugural season and Harya avenged to some extent the defeat in the title clash.

The most high profile contest of the day was between former world champion Gadisov and Mumbai's former European champion Pavlo Oliinyk in the 97kg division.

Gadisov maged to establish his domition early on and opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period.

The Russian maintained his domition in the second round as well. He produced a two-point move early in the second period to increase his lead.

Pavlo tried to show some urgency towards the end but could not prevent Gadisov from taking a 6-0 win.

Earlier, Harya's Rajneesh overpowered Vikas of Mumbai 7-2 in the opening bout of the contest.

Vikas took the early lead in the 65kg bout, flipping his opponent for a 2-0 lead.

But Rajneesh earned two points late in the first round as the wrestlers went into the break locked at 2-2.

The second period saw Rajneesh stamp his authority over the proceedings. The Harya grappler bagged two points with a counter-attack just after the restart and never looked back from there.

Reigning Olympic champion Erica Wieb brought Mumbai back to level terms with an easy 16-0 verdict over Harya's Kiran.

Gadisov then wrested the lead back for Harya before Sofia Mattsson and Marwa Amri also won their respective bouts to give their team an insurmountable 4-1 lead.

Rahul Aware gave Mumbai fans something to cheer about right at the end with an exciting win over Sandeep Tomar in the 57kg category.

Trailing by a considerable margin, Aware used the fitley move to superb effect to pick up 14 points in the second round and complete a dramatic win. IANS