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Pune, January 12: Haryana once again emphasised their position as the wrestling powerhouse by emerging as the top team at the Khelo India Youth Games at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex, Balewadi, Pune.
A year ago, they had done the same in Khelo India School Games. They had an incredible haul of 24 golds, which was more than all others put together. In all, they won 58 medals, which also included 16 silver and 18 bronze.
Hosts Maharashtra clinched total 26 medals (four gold, eight silver and 14 bronze), but were placed third as Delhi bagged more gold medals (eight gold, five silver and six bronze) in their 19-medal tally.
Haryana coach Vijender was in a jubilant mood on Saturday and praised his wards for their contribution to the state. “We were missing top wrestling stars like Anshu and Sonam. Moreover, World sub-junior silver medallist Meenakshi and Asian cadet gold medallist Akash Dahiya weren’t at their best. Yet we managed to grab so many medals. It shows the depth and talent in our state,” he said.
The best encounter of the day was between Uttar Pradesh’s Payal Sharma and Haryana’s Monika Hooda in the girls under-21 57kg category. Both wrestlers were very evenly matched and worked very hard as the spectators were excited with crowds yelling and calling out for various holds and moves. Monika finally won 18-10.
Of the 11 gold available on the final day, Haryana took eight while Delhi had just two gold and Uttar Pradesh grabbed one. Hosts Maharashtra ended with just four bronze medals.
Yet Maharashtra coach Datta Mane was satisfied with state’s performance. “We have been improving on a steady basis. Wrestling being a traditional sport in Maharashtra, there is no shortage in talent, but a major chunk of wrestlers are still engaged with mud (akhara) wrestling. We need to host more such tournament and encourage modern mat wrestling in every village. We just need to create a solid support system that will focus on cadet and sub-junior wrestlers,” he said.
Results: Girls U21 (all Freestyle)
57kg: Anju (HAR), Monika Hooda (HAR), Bronze: Payal Sharma (UP)
62kg: Radhika (HAR) bt Anjali (HAR) 4-2; Bronze: Jaspreet (PB)
68kg: Pooja Dalvi (KAR) bt Aarti Devi (HAR) 7-2; Bronze: Jashanbir Kaur (PB)
71kg Nisha (HAR) bt Navjyot Kaur (PB) 11-0; Bronze: Nutan Sharma (HAR)
Boys U21 (all freestyle)
57kg: Rahul (DEL) bt Praveen (CHD) 15-5; Bronze: Jyotiba Atkale (MAH)
61kg: Ravinder (HAR) bt Rakesh (DEL) 14-7; Bronze: Akash (PB)
65kg: Vikas Kumar (HAR), Naveet (CHD), Devanand Pawar (MAH)
71kg: Vishal Kaliramana (Har), Arvind Yadav (UP), Sagar Shinde (Mah)
74kg: Praveen Malik (HAR), E Srinivas (KAR), Mukesh (CHD)
86kg: Sanjeet (HAR), Monu (RAJ), Tarun Kumar (DEL)
97kg: Akash Antil (Del), Rohit (HAR), Vikram Parkhi (MAH)
