Womens wrestling news 09

Patiala, July 3 :

A 24-member Indian men and women wrestling contingent will leave for Manila in Philippines on July 6 to compete in the upcoming Asian Junior Wrestling Championship slated for July 9 to 13.

The squad will be accompanied by coaches O P Yadav (SAI) and Anita (Uttar Pradesh).

The eight girls, who are training here at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) under the supervision of Georgian coach Roindobo, who is assisted by Indian coaches, will compete in Free-style in the Championship.

Eight boys in Greco-Roman and eight boys in Free-style, who are training in Jalandhar and Sonepat respectively, will represent the country in the Championship.

The girls' team comprises: Kavita (44 kg.) ---U.P.

Priyanka (48 kg.) ---U.P.

Anju (51 kg.) ---U.P.

Gargi (55 kg.) ---U.P.

S.Malik (59 kg.) ---Haryana Promilla (63 kg.) ---M.P.

Navjot Kaur (67 kg.) ---Punjab Anmol (72 kg.) ---Haryana In the World Wrestling Championship, held in Turkey in July 2008, Priyanka had won a bronze medal, and she is likely to do well in the Championship at Manila.

Gargi, who won a bronze medal in the last Asian Junior Wrestling Championship, held in Doha in July 2008, is also hopeful of winning a medal in Manila.

--- UNI

First ever female gold medalist wrestler

Irini Merleni won the first ever Olympic gold medal in womens
wrestling, in Athens 2004. Wrestling seems to be very serious
business in Merleni’s native Ukraine, a national sports.

There had been much doubt and critisism when she was picked to represent
her country for the very first time women wrestlers would be allowed to
compete at the Olympic level. She seems pleased to have silenced her critics.

ATHENS, AUG. 24. The first woman ever to win gold in Olympic wrestling screamed with delight, subsided into floods of tears and leapt into the arms of an astonished referee.

Five minutes later she was still sobbing and tearing at her hair on the podium. Irini Merleni could be forgiven her Bridget Jones moment.

Merleni, a Ukrainian with the world's most aggressive pigtails, really did resemble Bridget Jones on a bad-hair day. But what a bad-hair day: she routed the American, Patricia Miranda, in the semifinals and Japan's Chiharu Icho, the youngest of the fearsome Icho sisters, deservedly followed on a referee's verdict in the final. It was tigerish, it was talented; as an Olympic sport it was entirely legitimate.

One of the more gratifying sounds of a modern Olympics is that of Baron de Coubertin turning in his grave.

If he flipped over the introduction of women's weightlifting in Sydney, he will have triple-salchowed in Athens at his first sight of women wrestlers. If boxers are ever admitted, prepare for him to take gold in grave gymnastics.

"The ruggedness of male exertion is much to be dreaded when it comes to the female" — before Merleni plots violent retribution, it is best to point out the quote belonged to Coubertin.

As did his suggestion that, when it comes to the Olympics, women should concentrate on exalting the male form by engaging in periodic bouts of polite applause.

As of yesterday they engage instead in strategy, stamina and controlled violence. They are the stars of the Ano Liossia Hall, an Olympic outpost on Athens' scrubby northern fringes.

Not that finding a comment to capture this historic moment was easy. Merleni was too overcome with her gold in the 48kg freestyle to make much sense, and Icho was too concerned about the knock-on effect her defeat might have on her older sister, Kaori, to engage in theorising about the cultural advancement of women.

She observed (although one suspects the translator tidied it up a bit): "I regret I have no thoughts at this time about the effect upon women in Japan by the presence of women's wrestling in the Olympics."

So it fell upon Merleni's masseuse, a friendly, strapping lass, to make a point in broken English that brooked no argument. "Wrestling now for woman. Ukraine women. Ukraine women very beautiful."

Miranda will now study for a law degree at Yale. She does pottery, plays the piano and her parents were political refugees from Brazil.

She would be a natural hero in a Pelecanos crime novel. At Stanford University, when she was not fighting men, she was fighting the jibes. "I couldn't count how many people were sceptical about my wrestling."

Japan had three finalists in the four weight categories on Monday night. Kaori Icho did take gold after all at 63kg and there was another for Saori Yoshida at 55kg. Kyoko Hamaguchi, who carried the Japanese flag in the opening ceremony, had to settle for bronze. Between them they symbolise the rise of women's sport in Japan.

Hamaguchi's semifinal loss to the Chinese, Wang Xu, had caused quite a stir. Her father, "Animal" Hamaguchi, a former professional wrestler of renown, leapt from the stands shouting: "That's impossible. It's not on. They've made a mistake." He was restrained by security staff and returned to his seat, to be berated by his wife.

Japan's ancient scripts tell of legendary female warriors and, if the samurai culture put paid to that, those battling qualities live on in the Icho sisters.

Both were wrestling by the age of five and last year they became the first sisters to win world titles in the same year. Chiharu had Kaori in her corner as her coach and, after the bout, dropped to her knees in front of her, partly with exhaustion, partly from homage. Last night, after Kaori won gold, she dropped to her knees in relief.

Indian wrestling team to lave for Manila on July 6

First ever female gold medalist wrestler