Indian wrestlers put on an inspiring show winning two gold medals and a silver and bronze each on the last day of the wrestling competition in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the SECC Hall here Thursday.
Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Kumari clinched the gold medals while Geetika Jakhar and Pawan Kumar got the silver and the bronze medal respectively. Indian wrestlers finished with a total of 13 medals - five gold, six silver and two bronze.
The four medals, including two gold medals, on the last day made up for Wednesday's disappointment when India missed out on four gold medals.
The first gold medal of the day came from Babita, who beat Canada's Brittanee Laverdure in the final of the women's 55kg freestyle category. The 24-year-old Babita, who had bagged the silver in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, won 9-2 against the 32-year-old Brittanee, who ended up injuring her finger during the bout.
Babita dominated most of the proceedings and it was only in the last 15 seconds that Brittanne managed to open her scoring but by then it was all over.
Next up was Yogeshwar, who beat Jevon Balfour of Canada in the final of the men's freestyle 65kg category. Yogeshwar was declared the winner on grounds of technical superiority after he took a 10-0 lead within 1.53 minutes of the first period.
But there was disappointment in th the women's freestyle 63 kg final, where Geetika Jakhar proved no match for Canada's Danielle Lappage and settled for the silver medal. The 23-year-old Danielle controlled the proceedings and won the bout 7-0.
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The final medal of the day came from Pawan Kumar, who pulled off a stunning come from behind win against Pakistan's Muhammad Inam to clinch the bronze medal in the men's freestlye 86kg category. The two wrestlers were tied at 6-6 but Pawan was adjudged the winner since he scored the last point.
It is the first time that Yogeshwar is participating in a major tournament ever since he made a move to the 65kg category after his pet 60kg was removed by world body FILA last year. Yogeshwar had won the bronze in the 2012 London Games in the 60kg.
Yogeshwar raced away with a 11-0 win over Scotsman Alex Gladkov in the Round of 16. The 31-year-old Indian again disappointed the Scottish fans beating Gareth Jones 10-0 in the quarterfinal and booked his place in the final with another facile 10-0 win over Sri Lankan Chamara Perera in the semi-final.
The 20-year-old Pawan was unlucky to lose his semi-final bout to Canada's Tamerlan Tagziev 0-4 and fought it out for the bronze with Pakistan's Inam.
Pawan started off well with a 10-0 win over New Zealand's Steve Hill in the Round of 16 where the Indian was declared winner due to technical superiority and then went on to beat Scotland's Luigi Bianco 5-0 in the quarterfinal.