Glasgow: Indian grapplers collected foursilver and a bronze from the wrestling arena, a far cry from yesterday’s three-gold burst but still a creditable performance, as they swelled their overall tally in the sport to 10 in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today. As many as four Indians entered the final and one made it to the bronze medal round through repechage but none could win a gold at the SECC wrestling arena here.
There were high expectations from the grapplers after India won three gold, one silver and one bronze yesterday but they ended by bagging four silver and one bronze.
Satyawart Kadian (men’s 97kg freestyle), Bajrang (men’s 61kg), Lalita Sehrawat (women’s 53kg) and Sakshi Malik (women’s 58kg) won a silver each while Navjot Kaur bagged a
bronze in women’s 69kg.
India have from the sport so far won a total of three gold, five silver and two bronze. The best Indian who looked like winning a gold was Satyawart Kadian in men’s 97kg freestyle but the remaining three finalists came a cropper in the bout that mattered the most. Kadian led 2-0 on technical points against Indian origin Canadian Arjun Gill in the first period of three minutes but squandered it as his opponent came back strongly in the second period to run away with the gold, much to the huge disappointment of the Indian camp who sat all day long in search of a gold.
The final bout ended in a tense situation as the scoreboard showed both wrestlers tied 4-4 on technical points but the judges awarded the gold to Gill on a 3-1 PP verdict decision by Points with the loser with technical points.
