Haryana dominate wrestling with five gold; Maharashtra impress with three

Pune, Jan. 11: Wrestling powerhouse Haryana continued their domination on the third day of the Khelo India Youth Games 2019 here in Pune on Friday.

The state grapplers, who have already won 11 gold medals, added a further five along with six silver and four bronze medals. So far, Haryana leads the tally with 43 medals under their belt with 16 golds.

However, UP’s Bharati Bhagel denied Haryana a clean sweep in the girls’ segment, winning gold in the 55kg weight category in the U-21 age group.

It was agriculturalist Pravin Patil from Kolhapur who had clinched Maharashtra’s first gold in the Greco Roman category on the first day.

On Friday, another Patil from Kolhapur – Mahesh Patil -- repeated the performance by winning gold in the U-17 51kg freestyle category. In the final, the debutant defeated Haryana’s Vipin in a low-scoring match which ended on 2-1, in Mahesh’s favour.

“I was watching the Haryana wrestlers closely from Day One and was a little nervous due to their aggressive approach. So, I had decided just to hold my position and avoid making any silly mistakes. The plan worked well and after taking the lead, I just focused on maintaining it,” said Mahesh, who trained with the Boys Sports Company in Nashik for two years.

Another rural entrant, Vetal Shelke from Solapur, also tamed a Haryana wrestler in the U-17 80kg category to lay his hands on the yellow metal and Maharashtra’s third gold came from Pune lad Sachin Datal in the 60kg category.

Sachin, who trains at the Mamasaheb Mohol Wrestling Complex, dominated Haryana’s Jaideep 7-2 in the summit clash.

In all, Maharashtra had a good day in the ring, winning three gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Results Wrestling Day 3

Girls U-21 Freestyle

50kg: Gold: Jyoti (HAR), Silver: Shivani Pawar (MP), Bronze: Swati Shinde (MAH)

53kg: Gold: Anju (HAR), Silver: Kiran (HAR), Bronze: Meenakshi (HAR)

55kg: Gold: Bharati Bhagel (UP), Silver: Meenakshi (HAR), Bronze: Lakshmi (KAR)

Boys U-17 freestyle

51kg: Mahesh Patil (MAH) bt Vipin (HAR) 2-1; Bronze: Deepak Kanojiya (GUJ), Sukhdev (HAR)

55kg: Aman (DEL) bt Sachin (HAR) 11-2; Bronze: Ashish (HAR), Jatin (HP)

60kg: Sachin Datal (MAH) bt Jaideep (HAR) 7-2; Brozne: Sahil (PB), Chandar Mohan (HAR)

65kg: Parvinder (HAR) bt Ajay Wabale (MAH) 9-3; Brozne: Sachin (UP), Manish Goswami (DEL)

71kg: Vijay (HAR) bt Sanjay Mishra (MAH) 6-3, Munna Yadav (UP), Kalicharan Solankar (MAH)

80kg: Vetal Shelke (MAH) bt Krishan (HAR) 8-3; Brozne: Nishant (HP), Mulayam Yadav (UP)

92kg Final: Deepak (HAR) bt Umang Choudhari (UP) 11-0; Bronze: Aman Rathi (DEL)