India lift 14 out of 16 gold in wrestling

GUWAHATI, Feb 8: Indian grapplers simply annihilated their opponents, scooping 14 gold medals out of a total 16 on offer as the wrestling competition in the 12th South Asian Games ended here on Monday.

Despite being represented by a second string team, the home wrestlers proved too strong for their South Asian neighbours as they grabbed five more gold out of six on offer, besides a silver, on the concluding day today at the R G Baruah Sports Complex.

Indian wrestlers thus ended their campaign with a whopping 14 gold and two silver. India won gold in all the eight women’s categories, while their men counterparts won six gold and two silver. Pakistan won two gold medals.

Shilpi Sheoran began the gold count for India on Monday as she beat Farza Sharmin of Bangladesh in the women’s 63kg fil bout. Rajani and Nikki made all-gold affair for Indian women in the Games by defeating Bangladesh’s Shirin Sulta and W Weerasingh of Sri Lanka, respectively in the 69kg and 75kg categories.

Among men, Mausam Khatri and Pardeep won a gold each in 97kg and 74kg respectively, while Mandeep had to settle for a silver as he lost to Pakistan’s Zaman Avwar in the 125kg fil bout.

In the 2010 edition, India had won three gold and a silver in men’s wrestling while Pakistan had won two gold and a silver.