Commonwealth Games 201: Three more gold medals possible for India in wrestling

Yogeshwar Dutt

Glasgow, July 31 (IANS): Indian wrestlers continued their impressive run with Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, Geetika Jakhar and Babita Kumar all qualifying for the final and Pawan Kumar staying in the hunt for a bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games here Thursday.

India have won nine medals – three gold, five silver and a bronze – from wrestling and are assured of at least three silvers.

Yogeshwar, who had won the gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, will be facing Canada's Jevon Balfour in the men's freestyle 65kg category.

This is the first time that Yogeshwar is participating in a major tournament since he made a move to the 65kg category after his pet 60kg was removed by world body FILA last year. Yogeshwar had won the bronze in the 2012 London Games in the 60kg.

Yogeshwar raced away to an 11-0 win over Scotsman Alex Gladkov in the Round of 16. The 31-year-old Indian then disappointed the Scottish fans again, beating Gareth Jones 10-0 in the quarterfinal, and he booked his place in the final with another facile 10-0 win over Sri Lankan Chamara Perera in the semi-final.

The female wrestlers also put on a inspiring show, with both Babita and Geetika eyeing gold medals today. Babita will be facing Canada's Brittanee Laverdure in the 55kg freestyle final while Geetika will take on Danielle Lappage, also from Canada, in the 63kg category final.

Babita beat England's Louisa Porogovska 2-0. The match had to be stopped in the first period as the Indian took down the English girl by fall and was adjudged the winner.

Geetika booked her place in the final with a 13-2 win over Wales' Sarah Connolly in the semi-final. The bout was stopped in the second period as Geetika opened up a 10 points lead and was declared the winner by technical superiority.

But 20-year-old Pawan was extremely unlucky as he lost his semi-final bout to Canada's Tamerlan Tagziev 0-4. Pawan will have to fight it out for the bronze medal with Pakistan's Muhammad Inam in the 86kg medal match.

Pawan started off well with a 10-0 win over New Zealand's Steve Hill in the Round of 16 where the Indian was declared winner due to technical superiority, and he then went on to beat Scotland's Luigi Bianco 5-0 in the quarterfinal.