Sport - Wrestling

Alka Tomar clinches gold

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

INTENSE DUEL: Alka Tomar held her nerve to beat defending champion Anita in the women’s 59kg category final.

NAWABGANJ: Alka Tomar held her nerve to beat defending champion Anita of Haryana ‘A’ and win the 59kg women’s title in the 53rd National wrestling championship at the Nandini Nagar College sports complex here on Saturday.

In a keenly-fought bout, Alka, who had easy outings against Pritisna (Uttarakhand), Babita Nagar (Delhi) and Sushma Kundu (Chandigarh) on her way to the final, met a dogged opponent in Anita before getting her hand on the gold medal in front of her home crowd.

The Haryana wrestler adopted an attacking strategy while Alka was defensive in her approach. The initial two rounds saw the wrestlers caught in safe zone as both failed to earn any point. Alka, who underwent a back operation to regain her fitness, managed to win the decider.

“I was very happy to win the gold after a six-month lay-off. The final was hard and when you make a comeback and find somebody equally good you think twice,” said the Arjuna Award winner.

In a controversial 60kg freestyle second round fight, Arjuna Award winner and veteran wrestler Kripa Shankar lost to defending champion Krishan Kumar of Delhi.

The Railway grappler alleged that Kumar bit his left hand. “It’s not WWF, but he was let off. During the ‘clinch,’ even after giving him the right position a caution point was awarded against me,” he said.

Referee Ashok Kumar, however, defended his decision. “There was no cut mark, it was only a rub mark. During the clinch, I warned him thrice but he did not pay heed.”

In the women’s 51kg event, Rachna upset last year’s champion Neha Rathi in the second round. Rachna later went on to clinch the gold.

The 74kg Greco-Roman second round fight between holder Rajbir and Naresh Kumar was thrilling.

In the contest considered as good as the “gold medal match,” Rajbir warded off a strong challenge from Naresh and then cruised to defend his title.

The medallists:

Men: Freestyle: 60kg: Gold: Hardeep Singh (Pun ‘A’); Silver: Krishan Kumar (Del); Bronze: Shyam Lal (U.P.), Manoj Kumar (SSCB).

74kg: Gold: Harpreet Singh (RSPB-A); Silver: Paramjeet Singh (RSPB-B); Bronze: Rajender Bhati (MP), Sachin Padatare (SSCB).

Greco-Roman: 60kg: Gold: Ravinder Singh (RSPB ‘A’); Silver: N.B. Singh (SSCB ‘B’), Bronze: Dinesh Yadav (MP), Anil Kumar (SSCB ‘A’).

74kg: Gold: Rajbir (RSPB ‘A’); Silver: Gurbinder Singh (Pun ‘A); Bronze: Jitender (RSPB ‘B’), Naresh Kumar (SSCB ‘A’).

Women: Freestyle: 51kg: Gold: Rachna (Har ‘B’); Silver: Krishna Arya (Ukd); Bronze: Anju (Chd), Neha Rathi (Har ‘A’).

59kg: Gold: Alka Tomar (UP ‘A’); Silver: Anita (Har ‘A’); Bronze: Sushma Kundu (Chd), Nirmala Devi (Har ‘B’).

67kg: Gold: Suman Kundu (Har ‘A’); Silver: A. Geeta Rani (Ngl); Bronze: Manjit (MP), Jyoti (Del ‘A’).

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