Sushil Kumar needs just 107 seconds to beat Abbas and win gold

Glasgow: Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar spearheaded a sparkling show as Indian grapplers dominated the wrestling arena with three gold medals after the shooters ended their campaign on a rousing note with five more podium finishes on the sixth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games. Sushil expectedly bagged gold in the mens 75kg freestyle category and his success was replicated by Amit Kumar in the mens 57kg event. In the women’s section, Vinesh Phogat finished on top in 48kg at the SECC Hall. Rajeev Tomar, however, had to settle for a silver in the men’s 125 kg freestyle event after going down to Canada’s Korey Jarvis 0-3 in the finals. [caption id=“attachment_1640771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Earlier, Indian shooters continued to dominate the Barry Buddon Centre with the unassuming Sanjeev Rajput and Harpreet Singh clinching a silver medal each although there was heartbreak for Olympic silver winner Vijay Kumar. Star marksman Gagan Narang had to be contend with a bronze while Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Lajja Gauswami, too, finished third on the podium, as the Indian shooting team finished with an impressive tally of 17 medals (4 Gold, 9 Silver 4 Bronze) from the Games. The wrestlers though took the limelight away with their stunning performances on the mat. The 31-year-old Sushil Kumar asserted his class as he won all four of his bouts comfortably. In the gold-medal match against Qamar Abbas of Pakistan, Sushil had an easy outing. The contest was over in the blink of an eye as the Indian pinned down his rival to clinch the gold with a 8-0 scoreline in under two minutes. Amit Kumar defeated Ebikweminomo Welson of Nigeria 6-2 in his final bout. The 20-year-old Indian started off well and completely dominated the first round to post a comfortable 4-0 win. The Nigerian, however, fought back and the two wrestlers gave each other a tough time in the next round and they could bag just two points each. But due to the four points in his kitty already from the opening round, the youngster from India prevailed over his opponent to pocket Gold. In what turned out to be a close battle between Vinesh and England’s Yana Rattigan in the finals of the women’s 48kg event, the Indian won 11-8. Before the wrestlers’ show, shooter Narang, the biggest Indian name in the fray, failed to defend his gold in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position on the concluding day of the shooting events. The 31-year-old Narang, who had won a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics in 10m air rifle event, shot 423.3 while Rajput aggregated 436.8 in the final held under windy conditions at the Barry Buddon Shooting Center at Dundee near here. Rajput and Narang were trailing at third and fifth after the three rounds of kneeling competition, each round having five shots. They were fourth and sixth respectively after the completion of three rounds of prone competition. But both made a remarkable recovery in the standing position to bag the silver and bronze respectively. Harpreet survived two rounds of nerve-wrecking shoot-off and brushed aside a penalty point docked on him to claim silver in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event. The 33-year-old Harpreet from Haryana saved India from disaster by bagging the silver after Olympic silver medallist Vijay failed to qualify for the final round after finishing seventh in the qualification. Only the top six in the qualification round qualify for the final. Harpreet, who topped the qualification round, hit 21 times on the target in the six-shooter final which had eight rounds of five shots each. Manavjit bagged a bronze medal in the men’s trap event. Manavjit finished third in the semi-finals after hitting 13 of the maximum 15 targets. He then beat renowned shooter Michael Diamond of Australia in the bronze medal match. In the bronze medal match, both Manavjit and Diamond hit 11 targets out of the 15. It required a ‘shoot-off’ where the Indian was on target to clinch a podium finish. Later in the day, Gauswami aggregated 436.1 to bag the bronze medal in women’s 50-metre rifle 3 position. However, London Olympic silver medallist Vijay made a shock exit in the qualification round of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event. Vijay shot a total of 555 points in the two qualification rounds to finish seventh and miss out on a place in the final round. The top six in the qualification round qualify for the final round. PTI