Vinesh, Sumit claim gold; Sakshi settles for bronze on last day of CWG wrestling

Press Trust of India  |  Gold Coast 

There was no stopping the gold rush in as two more were added to the tally by (50kg) and Sumit (125kg) but Olympic bronze-medallist (62kg) had to be content with a third-place finish in the here today.

The overall count was one less than the medals achieved in the 2014 edition of but kept their gold medal count at five, the number they achieved the last time.

The weight categories of both Sakshi and Vinesh were competed on a round-robin format as the number of competitors in the draw were less than six.

Sakshi went out of the gold medal contention in the first round itself after losses to Canada's and Nigeria's Aminat Adeniyi following a win over Cameroon's Berthe Ngolle.

But she gathered herself after the setback to defeat New Zealand's Tayla Ford 6-5 in a close bout to avoid going without a medal. The heartbreak of missing the gold left her in tears during the medal ceremony.

"I am so disappointed, I should have won a gold medal and I have to settle for a bronze. It will be another four years before I can make this right. I could not get what I expected of myself," she told PTI, wiping away her tears.

"I had a bad second bout because I thought I was winning till the last few seconds but then I lost and it destroyed my composure, I could never recover from that," she said referring to her defeat at the hands of Canadian The final scoreline read 8-11.

Asked what's next for her in the calendar, Sakshi said, "Next for me is and I will prepare hard for it."

However, Vinesh continued her tremendous comeback to big-ticket The 23-year-old, who had sustained a career-threatening during the Rio Olympics, was in complete control of proceedings from her first bout.

She ultimately did what her cousin could not do and claimed a second successive gold medal at The Indian won two of her three bouts on technical superiority, raising to 10-point leads before her rivals could open their accounts.

Sumit, on the other hand, competed in three bouts but didn't have to fight it out in the gold medal bout after his Nigerian rival pulled out citing an sustained earlier in the day.

Sumit found himself in slight controversy after his second-round rival -- Korey Jarvis of -- accused him of biting his hand during the bout. Jarvis' hand was heavily bandaged after the bout and he accused Sumit of being responsible for it.

"I don't think it would've made me win but there was no need to poke me in the eye or bite me. It happens a lot with Indian guys. They poke a lot and they bite, but it's part of the sport," Jarvis said.

Sumit, however, denied the charge.

Later, in the last bout of the day, Somveer ensured that it ended on a bright note as he clinched the 86kg category bronze.

Somveer rallied from a 1-3 deficit to defeat Canadian in the play-off bout.

Earlier, double Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar, and had picked up gold medals for on the first two days of the competition.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, April 14 2018. 14:35 IST