Indian wrestlers continue their impressive run at the 13th South Asian Games as Sakshi Malik and Ravinder lead India clinch 4 more gold medals on day three of the wrestling competition in Kathmandu on Sunday.
While Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi was unstoppable on her way to the podium finish in the 62kg category, U-23 World silver medallist Ravinder made it a golden double for India as he clinched top honours in the 61kg men’s freestyle.
Sakshi won all her matches one sided by pinning her opponents or with steep 10-0 margin to finish at the top. Ravinder, however, had to work hard to clinch his gold against Pakistan’s M. Bilal after easily overcoming the challenge posed by Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi wrestlers in the earlier rounds.
The other Indian wrestlers competing were Pawan Kumar (86kg) and Anshu (59kg) in the women’s freestyle; and both the grapplers won gold medals in their categories. While Commonwealth Games gold medallist Pawan had to rely on his experience to win 4-1 against his Pakistani counterpart in the finals, Anshu claimed the gold against the Sri Lankan wrestler by pinning her in record 15 seconds.
India so far has managed to win gold medals in all the 12 categories and will strive to maintain their unbeaten record on the last day of the competition as Gaurav Baliyan (74kg) and Anita Sheoran (68kg) will take on the challenge in the men’s freestyle and women’s categories respectively.