 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Wrestlers Ravinder Singh, Anil Kumar and Sanjay Kumar swelled India's gold medal tally, winning their respective men's events, on the second day of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi on Tuesday.
All three followed up on the fine showing of the shooting team which won two gold earlier in the morning.
Ravinder pinned down England's Terence Christopher in the second period, after taking a convincing 7-0 lead, to win the Greco-Roman 60-kg gold medal.
In the very next bout, Sanjay edged past South Africa's Richard Brian 1-0 in the 74-kg Greco-Roman category to earn India's second gold medal from the discipline.
That was followed by Anil Kumar beating Hassene Fkiri of Australia 3-0 in the 96-kg Greco-Roman event, making it three out of the three gold medals decided.
Fkiri was cautioned thrice by the umpire for dangerous play. The Australian repeated the mistake, forcing the umpire to disqualify him. When Fkiri was asked to leave the mat, he showed the middle finger to his opponent. The act cost him the silver medal.
National champion and three-times Commonwealth Championships gold medallist Ravinder was in top form as he pinned down his opponent in the second period.
"The Greco-Roman wrestling event was introduced for the first time, so I feel great to become the first gold medallist. I played an attacking game and it was great my opponent could not even take a single point off me," the 28-year-old Ravinder said.
But Sanjay was made to work hard for his gold medal as he won just one point in the first period and then survived the next to emerge triumphant.
Ravinder has won the National Championships for the last ten years and once again lived up to his top billing.
It was a close contest in the first round, with Ravinder taking a slender 2-0 lead, but he showed his class in the next as he claimed another five points before pinning down his opponent with a perfect move.
The sparse gathering at the venue gave him a standing ovation as he celebrated with the Indian tri-colour in his hand.
Ravinder had outplayed Sri Lanka's Kumara AS 13-0 in the qualification match before crushing Nigeria's Joseph 8-0 in the semi-finals.
Sanjay beat Laupule Ekeroma 3-0 in his qualification match before registering another narrow 2-0 victory over Perefegha Kiribein of Nigeria in the last four contest.
Kumar started off aggressively and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first period after which he never let go his hold to secure a hat-trick of gold medals for India.
Kumar had crushed Mark Montgomery of Northern Ireland 13-0 in the quarter-finals and then got the better of South African Kakoma Hugues 3-1 in the semi-finals.