India’s Rahul Aware came up with a brilliant performance in the second round to beat Canada’s Steven Takahashi 15-7 to lift India’s overall 13th gold medal and first from the wrestling arena.
Babita Kumari had bagged the silver in the women’s 53kg category after a 5-3 loss against another Canadian Diana Weicker in the nordic round-robin system.
(Read more: Follow all the updates on an action-packed day seven for India here.)
And Aware’s bout also looked like going that way with Takahashi taking a 4-2 lead in the opening round.
However, Aware fought back to go into the break with a 6-4 lead and then simply decimated his opponent clinching nine points with a few take downs. The Indian seemed to have injured his ribs midway through the second round but kept his composure to ensure the gold medal.
Earlier, in the women’s 53kg category, Babita Kumari suffered an unexpected loss in the final round robin game against Weicker and had to settle for a silver medal.
The 28-year-old, who had won the gold medal in the 2014 Games in the 55kg category, went into the final bout in top position but was penalised for passivity in the opening round against Weicker, who had not conceded a point in the event till then.
The second round saw both wrestlers looking for a point and Weicker was rewarded for a throw, though Babita immediately won two points to reduce the margin.
However, Weicker had the last laugh when she got her opponents back to win 5-3.
