Rising India wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ritu Phogat won the gold medals in Men's 65kg and Women's 48kg Freestyle categories respectively on the first day of the Senior Nationals that took place amid complete chaos here.
There was mismanagement all around with no one having any clue of the results and scores till hours after the bouts got over.
In the wrestling arena, the absence of stars like Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav in Men's 74kg, allowed new champion Jitender of Haryana to emerge. Jitender won the gold, while silver went to Pardeep. Manoj and Dinesh settled for bronze.
Similarly, Yogeshwar Dutt's absence from the mat helped his protege Bajrang finish on top as Rajneesh clinched the second position, while Manoj and Bhagat Singh settled for the third places in Men's 65kg.
In Men's 57kg, Sandeep Tomar clinched the yellow metal, while Ravinder won the silver.
With Ritu bagging the top honours in women's 48kg, Aprna Bishni got the silver and Pooja and Nirmal claimed the bronze.
In Women's 58kg and 63kg, Sarita and Anita finished on the top of the podium, respectively.
(REOPENS DEL 58)
India men's freestyle and greco-roman teams have been training in Tbilisi, Georgia, for some time now. Rahul Aware, who was also shortlisted by the federation to train in Tbilisi along with his colleagues, however, refused to go to Georgia, citing that his visa was not done for the two qualification events in Mongolia and Turkey.
"Rahul Aware will also face stern punishment as he refused to board the flight to Georgia, thinking that the WFI would not give him a chance to participate in qualification events either in Mongolia or in Turkey, as his visa for neither place was done at that time," a source in the WFI told
