Akshay Dhere and Sahil Kundu rally to post ‰ne victories
Young wrestler Akshay Dhere rallied to record a brilliant victory in the 57kg nal against Parmod Kumar and win his maiden elite title in the Federation Cup on Wednesday. Dhere, a National junior bronze medallist in 2022, pinned Parmod to corner glory in one of the few exciting freestyle contests in an otherwise lacklustre day.
Parmod grabbed an early 4-0 lead, but Dhere worked patiently to break his opponent’s resistance to make it 4-4 in the rst period. A swift double-leg attack and leg lace put the 21-year-old Armyman from Kolhapur ahead at 8-4. He carried on the momentum to perform another takedown and eventually pin down Parmod with two minutes left.
In another neck-andneck ght, National silver medallist Sahil Kundu (61kg) recovered from a 2-4 decit to beat Amit 17-7 in a high scoring nal bout.
Meanwhile, seven of the eight candidates in the fray won the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) athletes commission elections. They were Sahil, Smitha A.S., Bharti Baghel, Narsingh Yadav, Kushboo Pawar, Nikki and Sweta Dubey. Narsingh was elected chairman of the athletes’ commission.
The medallists: Men: Freestyle: 57kg: 1. Akshay Dhere (Mah), 2. Parmod Kumar (Chd), 3. Rohit (Har), Janardhan Yadav (UP); 61kg: 1. Sahil Kundu (Har), 2. Amit (Del), 3. Lalit Kaushal (MP), Manoj (Raj); 65kg: 1. Atul (Har), 2. Manish Goswami (Del), 3. Deepanshu (Chd), Sonba Gongane (Mah); 70kg: 1. Shubham (UP), 2. Mahesh Langoti (Kar), 3. Pankaj Kumar (Del), Rohit Prajapati (MP); 74kg: 1. Sunny (Del), 2. Tejveer (UP), 3. Rohan Narayan Ghevodi (Kar), Naveen (Har); 79kg: 1. Sahil Dalal (Har), 2. Mandeep (Raj), 3. Akshay (Mah), Sadashiv Nalavade (Kar).
86kg: 1. Ashish (Del), 2. Gopal Koli (Kar), 3. Partham Dalal (Har), Vijenderpal Singh (Chg); 92kg: 1. Amit Singh (Del), 2. Vishal Kumar (UP), 3. Vijay (Har), Ajay (HP); 97kg: 1. Omkar Chaugule (Mah), 2. Hari (Chd), 3. Aman (Har), Basavaraj Patil (Kar); 125kg: 1. Lakshay (Del), 2. Gurbaj Singh (Pun), 3. Sachin Panwar (Chd), Saket Yadav (Mah).