Indian wrestlers sweep events
Indian wrestlers showcased their dominance in the 2010 Commonwealth Games Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi.
Ravinder Singh, Sanjay Kumar and Anil Kumar topped their respective weight categories to give the host nation a sweep of victory over the first three events at stake in the sport.
Singh defeated England's Terrence Christopher Bosson, 9-0, in the final of the 60-kilogram division. The 28-year-old took a 2-0 lead after the first round and scored five points in the second before pinning down his opponent.
"The Greco-Roman wrestling event was introduced for the first time, so I feel great to become the first gold medallist. I played an attacking game and it was great, my opponent could not even take a single point off me," said Singh, who defeated Sri Lanka's
AS Kumara (13-0) and Nigeria's Romeo Joseph (8-0) to reach the finals.
Joseph went on to win the bronze medal with a 4-0 victory over South African Marius Zacharias Loots.
While Singh had an easy time, it was the opposite for Sanjay in the 74kg final. The local bet was pushed to the limit before escaping with a 1-0 win over South Africa's Richard Brian Addinall. Sanjay scored a point in the first period and held on to his
lead until the final whistle.
He defeated Samoa's Laupule Ekeroma 3-0 in his qualifying match before outpointing Nigeria's Perefegha Kiribein 2-0 in the semi-finals. Australian Hassan Shahsavan took the bronze medal with a 3-0 win over Kiribein.
The final bout of the evening saw Anil defeating Australian Hassene Fkiri by disqualification in the 96kg category. Fkiri was disqualified when he repeated the same illegal manoeuvre again, despite being cautioned by the referee on three separate occasions.
Anil was leading Fkiri 6-0 when his opponent was disqualified.
The disqualification irked Fkiri, who initially refused to leave the mat and showed a dirty finger to the referee. He was later stripped of his silver medal for his unsportsmanlike conduct.
It was a disappointing finish for the Tunisia-born Fkiri, who sacrificed a lot just to remain in Australia.
"I can understand him getting frustrated, but there was no reason for him to lose his temper and lose control and make it an ugly scene, which he did," Australian wrestling official Colin Holland said after the bout.
Anil dominated Northern Ireland's Mark Montgomery 13-0 in the quarterfinals and defeated South African Kakoma Hugues Bella-Lufu 3-1 in the semi-finals.
Bella-Lufu defeated Canadian Eric Feunekes 2-0 in the bronze medal match. But as a result of Fkiri’s disqualification, Bella-Lufu was awarded the silver medal, while Feunekes got the bronze.
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