Saturday, July 2, 2005

India defends team title in a perfect fashionby winning 7 gold medals in Men's and 5 gold in

Women's Commonwealth Freestyle Wrestling Championships

Cape Town, South Africa - The Commonwealth Freestyle Wrestling Championships concluded on July 1, 2005 among the pomp and ceremony at the gymnasium hall at the University of Stellenbosch. The two day wrestling event was dominated by India and Canada with a surprise individual efforts by the wrestlers from South Africa.

In the preliminary rounds of the men's wrestling, three South African wrestlers started to get the partisan crowd of South African fans cheering as they beat the wrestlers from India. This was not the case in the last night's finals of the 2005 Commonwealth Freestyle Wrestling Championships as India won all seven weight classes against South Africa and Canada in men's Freestyle and five gold medals in women's Freestyle wrestling.

The big suprise in the women's wrestling was Cameroon's young lady wrestler who won the gold medal at 72 kg beating the favorite Indian wrestler. Martine Dugrenier 67 kg, World student wrestling champion from Montreal, Canada handled all opponents with ease in winning the gold medal in her weight class.

As women's wrestling numbers at these championships were low and the gold medal matches decided, the Commonwealth Wrestling Association decided to combine wrestling weight classes to four weight classes for a friendly tournament in order that women wrestlers would get a minimum of three matches each. In this friendly style of competition one wrestler's performance was above the others. Geetika Jakhar 63 kg wrestler from India and the 2003 Commonwealth Wrestling Champion wrestled opponents from 67 kg and 72 kg weight classes and beating all opponents. On the way to a perfect record of six wins she also beat the the Canadian world student champion , Martine Dugrenier.

For her outstanding wrestling performance,the Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association selected Geetika Jakhar of India as the best women's wrestler of the 2005 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships.

In the men's wrestling competition Indian wrestlers were dominating all opponents from other Commonwealthwrestling nations except for Canada and South Africa. For the first time in the Commonwealth history, the the upper weight classes had a such a large entry. In 96 kg weight class there were 11 entries.

The Organizing Commitee Chairman, Mr. Sakki Bosse said " if the team from Nigeria and Camerron arrived on time we would have 13 wrestlers in some weights. Both of these countries have good freestyle wrestlersand the finals would have been different. They did not arrive on time to wrestle in the men's freestyle but their women wrestler's were on time to wrestle and they won medals".

Indian team leader and the head coach Jagminder Singh were pleased with the performence of their wrestlers in the finals as they won all seven weight classes. Mr. Singh went to say " we brought our best wrestlers to this competition expecting to win seven gold medals in Freestyle as we did in 2003 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in London, Ontario, Canada. We look forward to the Greco-Roman portion of these Championships and we expect to win more medals and the team title".

There are many outstanding Indian wrestlers at the 2005 Commonwealth Feestyle Championships but three of them dominated their weight classes, they are Sushil Kumar 66 kg, Ramesh Kumar 74 kg and Palwinder Singh Cheema 120 kg. The Canadian wrestlers David Zilberman 96 kg and Tyler Margetis 74 kg were on the hunt for the gold medals but had to settle for silver this time.

"The Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association had a difficult task to select the best Frestyle wrestler in the men's competition as there were many good candidates. Ramesh Kumar 74 kg wrestlers was chosen as he showed total dominance of all his opponents in his weight class"said Mr. Josip Mrkoci, Chairman of the Executive Committee. The team trophy and the best athlete awards will be presented on July 2 in the evening at the banquet for athletes, officials, organizers and honoured guests.

The president of the South African Wrestling Federation, Mr. Dave van der Merwe was pleased with the performance of his wrestlers by saying " we won 1 silver and 5 bronze medals to put us second in team points behind India and ahead of Canada. Our girls also won 3 silver medals and they wrestled well as expected. The women's wrestling has not caught on in South Africa as it has in Canada and India. We are little disapointed in Canada for not sending a full women's team as they are the strongest Commonwealth nation in women's wrestling"

The Greco-Roman wrestling competition is on all day on July 2 and the Indian team has entered a separatefull Greco-Roman team plus other wrestlers from Freestyle in order to secure a tem title in this style of wrestling. The Greco-Roman competition is also being held at the Universty of Stellenbosch gymnasium.

Following the Commonwealth Championships a wrestling camp/symposium on wrestling will be held on July 3-7 and then a wrestling competition called " South African Centenary Cup" will be held on July 8-9 with most of the Commonwealth nations staying for this wrestling event as well.

Commonwealth Wrestling Championships Results

Freestyle - WOMEN

Weight Wrestler Country Rank

48kg Nirmala IND 1
Scantell Tintinger RSA 2

51kg Meena IND 1
Sammy Ozitf IND 2

55kg Neharathi IND 1
Magdeleine van As RSA 2

59kg Alka Tomar IND 1

63kg Gitika Jakhar IND 1

67kg Martine Dugrenier CAN 1
Sonja Coetzee RSA 2
Anita IND 3

72kg Ali Annase Laure CMR 1
Jyoti IND 2

Best Wrestler Award

Feminine - Geetika Jakhar 63kg - IND

For further information CONTACT :

Mr. Sakki Bosse - Chairman, Organizing Committee -

2005 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships - mobile number - (27) 083 - 286-3241

OR

Mr. Josip MRKOCI - Chairman - Executive Committee,

Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association

in Stellenbosch - South Africa - DORPSHUIS HOTEL

(27) 021 - 883 - 9881 - Room - 10

Our WEB site : http://groups.msn.com/CommonwealthWrestling

E-mail: - Commonwealth-Wrestling@sympatico.ca

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Leilani Akiyama

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