Sakshi Malik wins Gold as India complete dominance in Wrestling

Olympic Bronze Sakshi Malik took the lead on the medals log as Indian Wrestlers won four gold medals on day three of wrestling competitions at the 13th South Asian Games on Sunday. The Indian Wrestlers continued their dominance in Wrestling as they won gold medals in all the 12 categories.

In the 62kg category, Sakshi was unstoppable as she fought her way to the top podium. While Ravinder won gold in the men’s freestyle 61kg. Sakshi went on to win all her matches one-sided by pinning down her opponents as Ravinder had to work hard to earn his gold medal against Pakistan’s M’Bilal after easily overcoming the challenges posed by Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi wrestlers in the earlier rounds.

Pawan Kumar is another Indian wrestler who clinched a gold medal in the men’s freestyle 83kg while Anshu also won a gold medal in the women’s 59kg.

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Pawan had to rely on his experience to win 4-1 against his Pakistani opponent in the final, Anshu claimed the gold against his Sri Lankan foe within a record of 15 seconds on the bout.

Monday, which was the final day of the competitions, Gaurav Baliyan in the 74kg category and Anita Sheoran (68kg) surprisingly won gold medals also, as the whole 14 wrestlers won 14 gold medals. This was indeed an incredible record which no one had imagined.

It took just 48 seconds for Anita to pin her Sri Lankan opponents to win her gold medal. Also, the young Gaurav who had impressed everyone so far in the last few months, especially in the U-23 World Championships and Senior National Championships, did not stress himself before pinning down his opponents from Bangladesh and Sri Lankan Opponent respectively to register a perfect golden record for his country at the South Asian Games 2019.

Written by: Olumide Akinnfesi