Salute the golden boys of Indian wrestling

New Delhi: If the Indian wrestlers feel let down by the Commonwealth Games Federation's (CGF) decision to do away with Greco-Roman style in Glasgow 2014, they cannot be blamed.

After all, among the 10 gold medals that India won from wrestling, four gold medals were won in the Greco Roman category where Ravinder Singh (66kg), Sanjay (74 kg), Anil (96 kg) and Rajender Kumar (84 kg) did the country proud.

Apart from these four, Manoj Kumar won silver in the 84kg while Dharmender Dalal got bronze in the 120kg.

The Wrestling Federation of India president G S Mander and secretary general Kartar Singh are not really happy that where some of the less popular sport like lawn-bowling, rugby 7s and net-ball are compulsory events of the CWG, wrestling is given a cold shoulder.

If Indian marksmen have been the primary contributors to country's rich medal haul at the 19th edition of the Games, the Indian wrestling contingent are not far behind winning 19 medals in the 21 designated event. Among the 19 medals, there were 10 gold, five silver and four bronze medals.

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If Sushil Kumar literally walked his way to gold, the women wrestlers participating in the Games for the first time -- and probably last as women's wrestling is still not a part of CWG 2014 -- stole the show with a memorable performance.

In the six events for women, India won three gold, two silver and a bronze medal to show their supremacy in the freestyle category.

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The trio of Alka Tomar, Geeta and Anita won their final bouts with ease, while Babita Kumari and Nirmala Devi missed out on yellow metal losing their final rounds but their performance drew praise from none other than superstar of Indian wrestling Sushil.

"I am very happy for the girls performance. I hope they would keep up the good work," Sushil said.

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If Sushil's victory was something that everyone knew was there for the taking, it was heartening to see Yogeshwar Dutt back with a bang after knee injury and win gold.

"I had the willpower and strength to come back. My association, my coaches, family, everyone supported me in my comeback trail. I have been able to honour and do justice to the faith that everyone showed in me," Yogeshwar said.

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Anuj Kumar (84kg) and Joginder Kumar (120 kg) were unlucky that they could not repeat their semi-final performance in the final, while Anil Kumar (55 kg) had to be content with a bronze.