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Oo loses silver and China continue to pile up the medals By Peter Auf der Heyde
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Monday December 11, 2006
Japan completely dominated the women's wrestling, taking the freestyle 48kg, the 55kg and the 63kg divisions, leaving just the 72kg division for the Chinese.
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Late night celebrations for India as Geetika wins silver
Doha, Dec 11:
Geetika Jhakar and Alka Tomar stole the limelight as India claimed a silver and a bronze medal from the women`s wrestling events of the 15th Asian games here today.
The 21-year-old Geetika, who made it to the final of the women`s freestyle 63 kg category, had to be content with a silver medal as she lost the final bout against Japan`s Kaori Icho 0-5 at the aspire hall.
Geetika could not get a single classification or technical point in the summit showdown unlike his Japanese opponent who bagged eight technical points and five classification points.
Alka Tomar had her moment of glory in the event as she took home the bronze medal by defeating China`s Su Lihui 3-1 in the 55 kg category bronze medal match.
Alka managed five technical points and three classification points while her Chinese opponent had five technical and one classification point to her credit.
With two more additions, India`s medal haul from the wrestling mat has gone up two one silver and two bronze with two more days of the competition remaining.
Vinayak Dalvi had won a bronze in men`s Greco-Roman section.
India, however, missed out on another bronze medal when Sonia lost to Kyrgystan`s Iana Panova who carved out a 3-0 victory.
Earlier in the morning session, Geetika got the better of Mongolia'`s Odonchimeg Badrakh in the semi-final with a comfortable 3-0 victory.
It was Geetika who was the pick of the Indian grapplers on show as she secured two technical points and three classification points to tame Badrakh in the semi-final.
Geetika had prevailed over Korea`s Kim Hee Jeong 3-1 in a quarter final bout in the morning session of competitions.
Two other grapplers Neha and Alka Tomar lost their first bouts in the women`s freestyle 48 kg and 55 kg categories. But Alka won her two other bouts for a bronze medal round.
Neha made a spirited effort but could not counter her Chinese opponent Li Xiaomei to go down 1-3 in the preliminary round.
"The Chinese girl was very good and fast. I tried but I lost. I came for a medal, I tried my best, but I am sad by this early loss", Neha said.
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Wrestling: Geetika in line for gold
Monday, December 11, 2006 (Doha):
India were in line for a gold in women's freestyle wrestling with Geetika Jakhar fighting her way into the final of the 63 kg category at the Asian Games.
The 21-year-old Geetika got the better of Mongolia's Odonchimeg Badrakh in the semi-final with a comfortable 3-0 victory.
Another women grappler Sonia kept herself on course for a medal by moving into the bonze-medal match where she would take on Kyrgystan's Iana Panova in the 72 kg category.
It was Geetika who was the pick of the Indian grapplers as she secured two technical points and three classification points to tame Badrakh in the semi-final.
She will now take on Japan's Kaori Icho in the final later in the day. Geetika had prevailed over Korea's Kim Hee Jeong 3-1 in a quarterfinal bout in the morning session of competitions.
Spirited performance
Two other grapplers Neha and Alka Tomar lost their first bouts in the 48 kg and 55 kg categories.
Neha made a spirited effort but could not counter her Chinese opponent Li Xiaomei to go down 1-3 in the preliminary round.
"The Chinese girl was very good and fast. I tried but I lost. I came for a medal, I tried my best, but I am sad by this early loss," Neha said.
Alka turned out to be a pushover for Japan's Saori Yoshida who recorded a convincing 3-0 victory, earning six technical points and three classification points. (PTI)
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Indian women grapplers in line for two medals
Doha, Dec. 11 (PTI):
Indian women grapplers Geetika Jakhar and Sonia stayed on course for medals today after Vinayak Dalvi had provided an unexpected bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling in the Asian Games.
In tennis, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi kept themselves on track for a gold in men's doubles by cruising into the semi-finals defeating their Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi and Aqeel Khan in straight sets.
Dalvi added a bronze to India's kitty and earned the country's first medal in the wrestling arena when he beat Kyrgyzstan's Rinat Usupjanov 3-1 with 11 technical points as against 8 by his rival in the 55 kg category.
Geetika got the better of Mongol Odonchimeg Badrakh with a facile 3-0 win in the semi final to move into the gold medal contest in the 63 kg category.
She will take on Japan's Kaori Icho in the final later in the day.
Her teammate Sonia also kept on course for a podium finish by moving up to the bronze medal match against Kyrgystan's Iana Panova in the 72 kg category.
However, two other women freestyle grapplers Neha and Alka Tomar lost their first bouts in the 48 kg and 55 kg categories.
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Geetika Jakhar in line for Gold at Doha
BALBIR SINGH
Monday, 11 December 2006
CHANDIGARH: Geetika Jakhar is in contention for a gold medal in 63 kg category in women wrestling competitons in the ongoing Doha Asian Games. The Haryana freestyle wrestler is now pitted against Icho Kaori of Japan for gold and silver.
According to Wrestling Federation of India president Dr Mahinder Singh Malik, who is in Doha as a technical delegate, said that Geetika fought very good fight against Badrakh Odonchimeg of Mongolia by points (3-0) in the semi-final bout. Geetika did not allow her opponent to score any technical point. The Indian wrestler scored one technical points each in two round. She also scored three classification points.
Icho Kaori of Japan ousted Xu Haiyan of China by 3-0 in the second semi-final in 63 kg class.
Alka Tomar will fight it out with Su Lihui of China for the bronze in 55 kg while Sonika Kaliraman will face Iana Panova of Kazakhsthan for bronze in 72 kg class.
India have already bagged a brozne medal through Dalvi Vinayak who defeated Usupjanov Rinat of Kazaksthan by 3-1 in the 55 kg class bout.
Dr Malik, who is also the vice-president of Asian Wrestling Federation, said from Doha that the freestyle bouts in the men's section will commence on December 13. Olympians Palwinder Singh Cheema, Yogeshwar and Vinod are in fray for the podium finish.
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Girl wrestlers grapple with stereotypes
Article Last Updated:12/11/2006 05:37:39 AM PST
WHEN I was a little girl and disagreed with my brother about something, I would usually resort to playing rough. Ninety percent of the fights I got in with my older brother involved hitting. To get the full picture, you have to know that my brother was a pretty chubby kid compared with me at the time, and he was a good 3 or 4 inches taller. Luckily for my parents, as we matured we stopped hitting as much, and when my brother started high school, one of the sports teams he joined was wrestling. My parents and I attended almost all of his tournaments, so I became very familiar with the sport.
At an end-of-season tournament, the head coach made a deal with me: He would give me a permission slip to go to the Northern California Section competition on a Friday if I promised to try wrestling the next year. At first I laughed and didn't take him seriously, but when he looked me in the eye and told me to shake on it, I knew he meant business. After a few minutes of thinking it over, I held out my hand and sealed the deal.
Before I knew it, the time had come to do my part. When I first walked into the wrestling room, I was nervous and shaky, but was quickly taken under the wing of a second-year wrestler, Sara. Later, the girls team would consist of five girls — two experienced wrestlers and three "newbies."
Along with the gym bag Inow had to bring to school every day came the questions of what it was for. When I explained by telling people I was on the wrestling
team, I got many different kinds of responses, but all of them had one thing in common: shock. "But you're a girl!" "That's so crazy!" "Do you wrestle boys?" and "You're too pretty to do that!" are just a few of the different things I heard.
Most of the time I would turn a nice shade of pink and reply as best as I could with ''yeses," ''nos" and ''thank yous." Most were enthused to hear that I had joined wrestling, but some didn't seem to like the idea of a girl doing a "man's sport." I could tell that some of the boys on the team felt they should redirect me to a nail salon, but at least they kept quiet about it. It also helped that Arroyo High was fortunate enough to have a girls coach so that we were able to go to all-girl tournaments instead of ones for the junior varsity boys. I can only imagine what some of the boys at those tournaments would have thought about our presence.
Some days the team would go into the weight room to lift weights before practice, and the football players would already be there. As soon as some of the other girl wrestlers and I walked in, they would begin to watch us, some of the boys with looks on their faces like "you must be joking." A teammate of mine was once told that the softball team was outside, and she replied with a nice "Thank you, but I'm on the wrestling team," and the boy just looked confused.
Now, I don't mean to discourage anyone from participating in a gender-dominated sport, I am merely trying to give the ordinary person a glimpse of what it is like to do what I did. In the end, I think that participating in a sport as challenging as wrestling gives you more pride in yourself at the end of the day, because you can say that you worked your butt off with the boys and made it through.
Caitlin Ray is a junior at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo. Columns by area teens appear in this space on Mondays.
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INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING FEDERATION GIVES BULGARIA'S ZLATEVA FIRST PLACE
9:27 Mon 11 Dec 2006
The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) named wrestler Stanka Zlateva best female competitor for 2006.
Zlateva is a free wrestling world and European champion.
Winners in other categories included wrestlers from Belarus, Ukraine, France, Japan, Poland and Spain, BGNES Sport reported.
Another Bulgarian competitor, the winner of European championship silver Venelin Venkov, ranked second in the 55kg category. Rovshan Bayramov from Azerbaijan ranked first.
Radoslav Velikov, free wrestling world championship, heads the ranking in this style in the 55kg category.
One more Bulgarian is listed in the ranking. Serafim Burzakov took the fourth position in the 66kg category.
FILA’s ranking takes into consideration results of world and European championships. It also counts the Grand Prix final results of the eight strongest competitors in each category.
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