CHITTORGARH: Maharashtra bagged four medals in men’s Free Style including a gold medal to finish third in the inaugral Under-23 National Wrestling Championship which concluded at the Gora Badi Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
Haryana wrestlers yet again dominated championship as their men won four out of 10 gold medals, mostly in heavier weight categories of the Freestyle events. However, they managed to win a lone silver and four bronze medals which were good enough for the state wrestlers to get the top perch and the overall championships title.
They logged 195 points with Delhi closely behind them at 165 points and Maharashtra at 139 points for the third spot.
All the gold medal winners will represent India in the Bucharest Under-23 World Championships to be held in the Romanian capital city from November 12 to 18, later this year.
Hosts Rajasthan bagged two bronze medals through Lado Jat (70 kg) and Rahul Rathi (79 kg) to register their presence in the meet which was being organized at the fort city for the first time.
The other gold-winning efforts came from Delhi as they bagged two medals and one each went to Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra wrestlers.
As for the results in various categories, Ravi Kumar of Delhi beat Sagar of Maharashtra 10-4 in 57 kg and it was followed up by Arun of Haryana with similar results in 61 kg class in which he downed Vinas Kumar of UP, in few of the one-sided finals of the day.
In 65 kg Surjeet of Delhi overcame Maharashtra’s Akshay for the gold and in 70 kg class, Naveen of Jharkhand beat Haryana’s Jasbir 9-3 in what was a tough bout with points accumulated by the former in a flurry in the second and third rounds.
In heavier weight categories like 75 kg, 79 kg and 92 kg classes Haryana’s Praveen beat Kumar Lahu of Maharashtra 15-3, Dinesh downing Sandeep Mann of Punjab 4-3-one of the best bout of the day-and Sunil Kumar overcoming Kiran of Karnataka 5-3 in the 92 Kg.
In between Upas Sharma from UP accounted for Nishant Gujar of Uttarakhand in 86 kg 4-3, also a close bout, while Punjab’s Karandeep Singh beat Nasir Hussain of Delhi in 97 kg 12-3. The Punjab wrestler dominated right from the word go to claim the gold.
In 125 kg category, the lone medal for Maharashtra cam when the state’s wrestler Abhijit beat Services opponent Sanjay 7-2.
