Wrestlers, archers have a field day

Guwahati, February 8

The Indian grapplers annihilated their opponents, scooping 14 gold medals out of total 16 as the wrestling competition in the South Asian Games ended here today.

Despite being represented by a second string team, the home wrestlers proved too strong for their South Asian neighbours as they grabbed five gold out of six on offer, besides a silver, on the concluding day today.

The Indian wrestlers thus ended their campaign with a whopping 14 gold and two silver medals. India won gold in all eight women’s categories, while the men clinched six gold and two silver medals.

Shilpi Sheoran began the gold count for India today as she beat Farzana Sharmin of Bangladesh in the women’s 63kg final bout. Rajani and Nikki then defeated Bangladesh’s Shirin Sultana and W Weerasingh of Sri Lanka, respectively, in the 69kg and 75kg categories.

Among the men, Mausam Khatri and Pardeep won a gold each in 97kg and 74kg, respectively, while Mandeep had to settle for a silver as he lost to Pakistan’s Zaman Avwar in the 125kg final bout.

Archers on target

The Indian compound archers made a clean sweep, sweep, grabbing all five gold medals on offer, along with two silver medals, today.

With compound archery making debut in the SAG, the Indian archers seized the opportunity to top the medals chart ahead of Bangladesh, who finished with two silver and two bronze medals, and third-placed Bhutan (0-1-1). The Indian recurve archers, too, are in line for a huge haul. The finals of the event will take place on Tuesday.

Chinappa beats Pak rival in an ill-tempered final

Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women’s individual squash after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clash to make up for India’s disappointment in the men’s event here today. Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7.

Chinappa said she was not happy with the way the referees handled the match and that she did not enjoy playing the match as her opponent was “very aggressive” and “not playing fair”. “Wazir is a good player but she was very aggressive.

“Fortunately, I won the gold but I did not enjoy playing the final. I play in the professional circuit and there these kind of things, like a lot of interference and blocking (by rival player) does not happen,” she said.

“I tried to stay calm but I had to let them (match officials) know what was happening on the court,” said Chinappa. “I am a kind of player who plays fair, without these interfering and blocking etc. Doing this is not nice for the spectators and for the game too,” she added.

Shuttlers win two gold

The Indian shuttlers opened their account with two gold medals in the men’s and women’s team events, downing their opponents from Sri Lanka. — Agencies