Seven girls from Haryana and one each from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chandigarh, on Saturday, qualified for the Under-23 World Championships to be held in Romania, starting on November 12. They had all won gold medals at the U-23 National Wrestling Championships in Chittorgarh.
On the second day of the championships, the Haryana wrestlers dominated, winning seven of the 10 gold medals on offer. They topped the team championships with 225 points. They also added one silver and two bronze medals to their tally for the top-of-table finish.
Uttar Pradesh finished a distant second with 158 points. They won one gold, one bronze and five silver medals. Punjab was third with one gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
The domination of Haryana women was evident right from the beginning, Ankush was the first one to start their medal-glut when she beat Ankita of Delhi 5-3 on points in the 53 kg match-up. In 50 kg, however, UP’s Divya Tomar pipped Haryana’s Jyoti 5-4.
Pinki from Haryana beat Uttarakhand’s Archana 10-4 in the 55 kg category. With Haryana’s Anju losing the semi-finals in 57kg, the final was between Chandigarh Neetu and UP’s Indu Tomar. The Chandigarh girl won comfortably at 10-4 to push Indu to the second position.
Anjali outsmarted UP’s Bharati Bhagel 6-3 in 59 kg.
In the 63 kg event, Pooja of Haryana pinned down Pooja Tomar from UP, winning the final 6-3.
In 72 kg and 76 kg, the two Haryana girls, Naina and Pooja, lived up their expectations to beat their Punjab opponents, Kulwinder Kaur (10-4) and Navjot Kaur (10-5).