National Wrestling championship: Sushil Kumar, Sakshi Malik advance into gold medal round in Indore

Indore: Back in action after three long years, two-time Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar on Friday made it to the gold medal round of the men’s 74kg freestyle competition in the National Wrestling championship. India’s lone woman Olympic medal winner Sakshi Malik and ‘Dangal girl’ Geeta Phogat also made the finals of their respective weight categories of women’s wrestling on the second day of the marquee domestic event. [caption id=“attachment_4205975” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sushil Kumar. Reuters[/caption] Sushil showed that class is permanent as he took less than two minutes to get past his opponents in the initial rounds, before two of his rivals interestingly gave him a walkover in the quarters and semis. While Sachin Dahiya gave him a walkover in the semifinals, enabling Sushil’s smooth passage to the gold-medal round, Praveen had given his more fancied opponent a walkover in the quarterfinals. Earlier, Sushil overpowered Mizoram’s Lalmalsawma by technical fall in 48 seconds in the first round and then pinned down Mukul Mishra in just a minute and 45 seconds in his next bout. Meanwhile, Geeta posted a come-from-behind win to make it to the finals of 59kg with a 8-4 result over Sarita Mor 8-4. Sakshi, in her opening bout, pinned down her rival in just 39 seconds and eventually sailed into the final of 62kg.