Haryana prevail over Maha in wrestling nationals

On the concluding day of the nationals, Maharashtra girls clinched just the two gold medals in the freestyle category as the boys in the Greco-Roman event missed the yellow metal in all the 10 weight categories. Despite failing to win gold medal, Maharashtra Greco-Roman wrestlers finished second collecting 147 points. Haryana finished on top of the table with 57 points as Rajasthan came third with 116 points.

In the girls freestyle group too Haryana edged out Maharashtra by nine points (171-161). Delhi at 139 points finished third. Similarly in the boys freestyle event, Haryana (155) outclassed Maharashtra (137) by 18 points.

The couple of gold medals that Maharashtra won on the concluding day came in the girls freestyle category.

Rohini Khanu Devba of Kolhapur and Gayatri Shinde from a small town in Pune district won the face saving gold medals for Maharashtra. In the girls 36kg final, Rohini prevailed over Karnataka’s Sushmita Kammar 10-0 while Gayatri outplayed Shrasti Kumar from Delhi in the 42kg weight category.

The higher weight category grapplers from Maharashtra marginally missed the chance to improve their overall medals tally after losing two finals. While Maharashtra’s Ketaki Jadhav lost to UP’s Ankita Kushavha in the girls 62kg freestyle event, Sharvari Rathod went down fighting to Punjab’s Puravi Sharma in the 66kg girls final.

Later in the concluding ceremony, president of Maharashtra Wrestling Association and former MP Ramdas Tadas, president of the organizing committee and MLC Sandip Joshi, Hindkesri Yogesh Dhoke, NMC sports officer Piyush Ambulkar and other WFI officials distributed the prizes.