India ended its title drought on the final day of the competition with two gold and as many bronze medals to finish second in the freestyle tally at the Junior Asian Wrestling Championships here on Sunday.
The contrast between the two golds, however, couldn’t have been more stark. If Sachin Rathi rode on a vociferous crowd support and mental strength to overturn a huge deficit and win by pinning his Mongolian opponent in the final of the 74kg, Deepak Punia, displaying technical superiority, had an easy 10-0 win in the 86kg category with almost 1.30 minutes left in the bout.
Trailing 2-5 at the end of the first round, Rathi conceded four more to lag 2-9 as the competition seemed all but over. But even as his opponent tried to roll him, the 20-year old from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh turned it around, exposing twice to reduce the margin to three points. A pin then ended the competition as the Mongolian appeared stunned by the fightback.
Confident
“Crowd support always helps, you don’t want to let down all the people who have travelled to see you fight. But I was always confident even when he was leading. The fact that I had defeated the Iranian in the semifinals only made me more confident since he was a much tougher opponent,” a reticent Rathi said.
Junior national coach Maha Singh Rao explained the change in strategy at half-time. “I told him he was giving too much space to the opponent and allowing him to attack. Closing the space gave Sachin the opening he wanted,” Rao said.
Punia, on the other hand, was favourite to win after returning with bronze from the Georgia Grand Prix in Tbilisi. “That was in the senior category so this was easy. But there is not much difference between seniors and juniors if you are well-prepared,” the student of coach Satpal at the Chhatrasal Stadium said.
The results:
Freestyle: 61kg: Abbos Rakhmov (Uzb), Syrbat Talgat (kaz), Suraj Kokate (Ind) and Minso Cho (Kor);
74kg: Sachin Rathi (Ind), Bat-Erdene Byambasuren (Mgl), Ali Bakhtiar Savadkouhi (Iri) and Taro Umebayashi (Jpn);
86kg: Deepak Punia (Ind), Azat Gajyyev (Tkm), Dinislambek Taalaibek Uulu (Kgz) and Seyedsajjad Seyedmehdi Seyedi (Iri);
92kg: Abbas Ali Foroutanrami (Iri), Takuma Otsu (Jpn), Alisher Yergali (Kaz);
125kg: Amir Nader Yari (Iri), Khasanboy Rakhimov (Uzb), Mohit (Ind) and Omar Eyubov (Kaz).
