Indian wrestler Sumit Malik claimed the gold medal in the men’s freestyle 125 kg after his opponent, Nigeria’s Sinivie Boltic, was ruled out of the final due to an injury at the 21st Commonwealth Games, here on Saturday.
Sumit defeated Pakistan’s Tayab Raza 10-4 in a dramatic bout. It turned out to be a pulsating contest as Sumit was leading early on but Raza came back to reduce the deficit to 2-3 after attacking the Indian’s legs.
However, Sumit didn’t allow his rival to dominate as he displayed incredible athleticism, hopping around the mat to avoid stepping outside the bound after Raza once again had grabbed his leg.
The Indian counterattacked and eventually won comfortably with a big margin.
Earlier, Sumit made an incredible comeback to win this bout against Korey Jarvis of Canada. Lagging 0-2 initially, the Indian turned it around to make it 3-2 before drawing level at 3-3.
In the dying moments, Sumit flipped Jarvis to win 6-4 in the end.
Among others, Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik went down to Aminat Adeniyi of Nigeria 3-6 in a nervous bout to end her golden dreams. She will try for bronze now.
Vinesh Phogat, meanwhile, defeated Rupinder Kaur of Australia in the 50kg freestyle to enter the final, while Somveer defeated Australia’s Jayden Lawrence 7-0 for a victory by fall in the 86kg freestyle repechage to go through to the bronze medal match.
