Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, Rajeev Tomar and Amit Kumar ensured three silver medals for India at the Commonwealth Games today after they entered the finals of their respective weight categories on the opening day of the wrestling competition here today.
Vinesh became the fourth Indian grappler to make the gold-medal round in the Women's 48kg freestyle here at the SECC Hall.
Both Sushil and Amit trumped three strong grapplers one after another within a matter of just one-and-a-half-hour in the men's 74kg and 57kg freestyle events, respectively, to make the gold-medal round, while Tomar had two easy rounds before he made the finals of the men's 125kg category.
Vinesh also overpowered two opponents en-route to the finals.
All the final bouts are to be held later in the day.
31-year-old Sushil proved his mettle as he comfortably won the round of 16, followed by his quarterfinal bout by the virtue of Great Superiority, which means winning by a difference of 10 points.
In the semifinals, Sushil beat Nigeria's Melvin Bibo to make the finals, where he will take on Qamar Abbas of Pakistan.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist and a silver medal winner at the 2012 London Games thrashed Australia's Jayden Lawrence 11-0 in the round of 16, before blanking Kushan Sandrage of Sri Lanka 10-0 in the last eight-stage of the competition.
Sushil, however, faced some threat in the semifinals with his Nigerian opponent managing to grab a few points. But in the end, it was the Indian who turned out to be far superior with a 8-4 victory.
The 31-year-old Indian grappler won six points in the first period but his opponent restored parity in the next. The Nigerian stunned Sushil when he put him down in the second round to not only earn two points to his credit but also injured the Indian.
Sushil was seen bleeding from his nose but he was soon back with a bang as he snatched two more points to have the last laugh.
